


Jeers, Tears, and Butterflies

by JustDucky92



Series: Butterfly 'Verse [1]
Category: Magic Kaito, 名探偵コナン | Detective Conan | Case Closed
Genre: Alternate Universe - Childhood Friends, Angst/Fluff, F/M, Friends to Lovers, KaiShin relationship, Kaito is awesome!, Kaito is still Kid, No Conan, femShinichi!, i have no idea what I'm doing with the tags, transgenderShinichi!, tried to stay close to canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-23
Updated: 2017-05-23
Packaged: 2018-11-03 18:49:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 29,865
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10973223
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JustDucky92/pseuds/JustDucky92
Summary: The jeers were the worst, followed closely by the disgusted stares.Then there were the names she was called and the misused pronouns.She would have gone insane from it all years ago, if it weren't for her rock.One would think that her rock would be her best friend, the most steady, trustworthy, and loyal person she knew.  One would be wrong.Even Ran had abandoned her in those first dark months, not yet understanding, not yet wanting to understand.Oh eventually she came around and they made up, and Ran became her second rock.  However those first months after her revelation would always stay between them, they would never truly be as close as they had been before and she despaired of that.No her rock was somebody else, somebody surprising to her at first, another close childhood friend.Her rock was Kuroba Kaito.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This started out as a random observation after I went through the entire Detective Conan English works list. I noticed that out of all the ways that Shinichi had been bent, I hadn’t noticed a single story where he’d been made into a transgender girl (if there was one I missed it and I’m sorry). I then went to bed and woke up with this story in my head bugging me lol
> 
> I’ve never written anything like this before and my knowledge of the Japanese culture comes from DCMK and Google so bear with me, if I made any mistakes I’m sorry.
> 
> I tried to stay as close to canon as possible while twisting everything on its head, hope I succeeded :)
> 
> This story has been beta-ed by my mother, because yes I am a giant nerd and a mamma’s girl and proud of it!
> 
> Chapter 10 of this story has been posted separately for those who don’t want to read the smexy bits. There is only minimal advancement for the characters if you want to skip it though it does tie up a last couple loose ends.
> 
> Hope you enjoy!.
> 
> Oh, and I don’t own any of the DCMK characters. I wish I did though cause I’d be rich then!

The jeers were the worst, followed closely by the disgusted stares.

Then there were the names she was called and the misused pronouns.

She would have gone insane from it all years ago, if it weren’t for her rock.

One would think that her rock would be her best friend, the most steady, trustworthy, and loyal person she knew. One would be wrong.

 Even Ran had abandoned her in those first dark months, not understanding, not yet wanting to understand. 

Oh eventually she came around and they made up, and Ran became her second rock. However those first months after her revelation would always stay between them, they would never truly be as close as they had been before and she despaired of that.

No her rock was somebody else, somebody surprising to her at first. Another close childhood friend.

Her rock was Kuroba Kaito.

*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

Everybody was surprised when, on his 14th birthday in the middle of his party, Kudo Shinichi announced he wanted to undergo a sex change and become a girl.

Surprised didn’t even cover it, shocked was more like it.

 After all, it wasn’t like the budding young detective was precisely feminine in any way, hell he was even the star of the soccer team.

His parents had excused themselves so that they could talk to their son in private after that little announcement.

Shinichi knew he wasn’t the best with words, especially when it came to what he was feeling inside, but the boy dug down deep to try to express what he felt in his heart of hearts. That he was a girl, should have been one, and his body was wrong.  He spoke of the dysphoria he sometimes felt when he looked at his body, as if it was somebody else’s.  And why should a girl have to be feminine he asked?  Ran practiced karate he pointed out, which was not exactly a feminine sport.

His impassion speech, the plea for them to understand evident in his voice, got to both of his parents, and unknown to them all, to the boy listening to his friend through a crack in the door.

Yusaku and Yukiko looked at each other and both knew that they would give into their sons, no their daughters, demands. They could never deny him anything, especially when he believed so deeply about something.

Shinichi’s eyes shone with relief when his parents capitalized, his face filled with joy but quickly turning serious when they asked him if he thought this through. The world is not kind to the different they pointed out gently.

He had, he said. He knew it would be hard, that people wouldn’t understand and would lash out because of it.  But, and he paused, he could not and would not deny who he was any longer.  He could only hope that his friends would stand by him through this.

When Shinichi said this the listening boy’s heart clenched. Of course he would stand by his friend, after all he had always been there for him.  How could he help but do the same?

When the Kudos returned to the party and announced that they had, after a long discussion with their son, decided to give him what he wanted several people outright left the party without another word.

It had already begun.

Most of the people left, adults and teens alike, were uncomfortable, not sure what to think.

Shinichi was mobbed by his school friends when he finally braved entering the room, the group curious if the boy was really going to go through with this, to them, crazy idea. Questions answered the room quickly started to empty out, party atmosphere gone.  While they all said they’d see him at school come Monday, the boy knew that most of them would probably never talk to him again.  It still hurt even though he’d been prepared for it.

The boy sighed as he leaned in a corner and watched his parents talk to the few remaining adults. Kuroba Chikage was over there, which meant that Kaito was still here somewhere.  He hadn’t talked to his friend yet and was rather dreading it but it needed to be done.  He needed to talk to Ran to but he wasn’t sure if she was still here.

Suddenly Shinichi spotted Ran coming his way, a brittle look on her face, and he gulped. Somehow he didn’t think this was going to go well.

He tried to explain to her, he really did, but she didn’t seem to want to listen, her blue eyes filled with tears.

Ran took a deep breath and spoke in as calm a voice as she could muster, “And-and what about us Shinichi?”

“I don’t-,” he looked into her imploring blue eyes and suddenly it clicked and he blanched. “Oh. _Oh_.  Oh God, Ran, I-I don’t.”  He stopped and took a deep breath.  “I’m sorry Ran, I love you, but I don’t love you that way.  I-,” he lowered his head and blushed slightly, “I like guys Ran.”

“I see,” she said stiffly and the tears she had been desperately trying to hold back came flooding down her cheeks. Ran turned and ran from the house, ears deaf to Shinichi’s pleas for her to come back.

Sonoko had thrown him confused but still commiserating look before taking off after her friend, after all, between the two of them they both knew that her loyalties lay with Ran.

It felt like his heart was being ripped from his chest. He and Ran had been best friends since they were children.  He had thought that if he could count on anyone, it would be her. 

Shinichi made to run after her when a hand landed on his shoulder.

“Let her be Shinichi. I think she needs some time to sort out her feelings, don’t you?”

“Kaito?”

Shinichi turned and sure enough it was his other childhood friend holding him back.

The two boys had been friends since they were five and Yukiko decided to introduce her all too serious son to her disguise master’s very outgoing son. While the pairing might seem like oil and water, the two boys had clicked and became the best of friends.  They didn’t get to see each other as much as they’d like since Kaito lived in Ekoda and Shinichi in Beika, but they talked all the time and visited whenever they could.  When Kaito’s father had died on stage when he was eight, the only thing that got him through it was Shinichi.

Shinichi looked into the face of his other best friend and doppelganger, just with blue-violet eyes and bed head hair, and wondered if he was going to leave him too.

Kaito smiled slightly, “You really never noticed that she had a crush on you did you? You can be so dense sometimes.”  The boy sobered, “Just give her some time, hopefully she’ll come around.  She is your friend after all.”

Shinichi’s sapphire blue eyes were full of pain and fear when he asked softly, “Are you going to leave me to?”

Kaito’s gaze was fierce when he answered, “Never. I don’t care if you’re a boy or a girl, or even one of my doves,” at this the amateur magician briefly made a dove appear and disappear in a puff of pink smoke, “you’ll always be my best friend.  You were there for me when Oyaji died, how can I not be here for you for this?”

Sapphire eyes filled with tears of relief before Shinichi grabbed Kaito in a hug, burying his face in the other boy’s shoulder as he cried.

On the other side of the room Yusaku and Yukiko watched all of this with heavy hearts, knowing that the road that their son had chosen was a long and hard one, one filled with traps and pitfalls. But at least, looking at the way Kaito was hugging Shinichi back, it looked like he might not be alone on his journey. 

They had been planning to go off and explore the world, leaving their son here in Japan, but now, they both understood that Shinichi needed them more. The world trip could wait.


	2. Chapter 2

The next few months were very hard on Shinichi, harder than he had thought they would be. He had thought that he had prepared himself for when he would finally make that long awaited transformation into who he was meant to be, who he was inside. 

But kids can be cruel.

If not for Kaito, he wasn’t sure what he would have done.

After more discussion with his parents, Shinichi decided that since the cat was proverbially already out of the bag, he wanted to start off by going to school Monday in his new persona. It made him nauseous to even think about it to be honest but he was adamant.  He was tired of being ‘he’ and ready to be ‘she’ and had to start somewhere.

His parents contacted the school and there was a long conversation he wasn’t privy to, but in the end he had several sets of female uniforms, which frankly he could do without the skirts but oh well.

They also called their doctor and set up an appointment which made his heart sing in excitement. He was going to start HRT, or Hormone Replacement Therapy, and starting so young would only help him appear more feminine in coming years.

His father also sat him down and embarrassed the hell out of him after he did some research on HRT and found out that most males became infertile after a few months while on it. He had asked Shinichi if he’d like to freeze some of his sperm just in case he found a partner someday and they wanted children.  As a woman, Shinichi wouldn’t be able to give birth, but if they didn’t address this now, before the HRT, he would likely lose the chance to ever have any biological children of his/her own. 

Shinichi was bright red by that point but after careful consideration he decided to do it, just in case, since his father did have a point. So another phone call was made and an extremely embarrassing trip was planned for the near future.

His mother took him shopping and for once he actually enjoyed it, though as always she went a little overboard. But in the end he had a whole new wardrobe, though they had gotten some strange looks since they were buying girl’s clothes. 

They also stopped by a wig store and bought him a wig to wear until his hair grew out. It was a simple shoulder length cut in the same dark chocolate color as his own hair.  He loved it.  With every new item they bought, every new step they took, he was closer to his goal.  With the wig he could see ‘her’ flitting around the edges, begging to come out.  It was nearly time.

His mother helped him with his mannerisms, gave him a small lesson on makeup, and reminded him to shave his legs Sunday night since he’d be wearing a skirt to school.

And Kaito of all people helped him with his voice. Kaito could mimic anyone, male or female, so he was the best person for the job, but Shinichi had never really expected his friend to actually help him with this even though he had tentatively called and asked.  A few voice lessons later and he had his female voice down pat and his heart was filled with gratitude for his friend.

When his parents asked him if he was going to change his name he told them that he’d decided to keep it. Shinichi is a gender neutral name so he thought it’d be easier all around if he kept it and besides, it was his name, it’d be weird to answer to something else.

And so come Monday morning the new Kudo Shinichi was born. He felt like a caterpillar that had finally broken free of its cocoon, becoming a beautiful butterfly.  Shinichi felt more right in his body than he ever had before, because he was no longer ‘he’ he was ‘she’.  It still wasn’t perfect, but it was a start.

Yusaku and Yukiko knew that they had made the right choice in allowing this when Shinichi walked down the stairs Monday morning. His, no her, face was fairly glowing in happiness.

Unfortunately that happiness didn’t last long.

Shinichi came home after school in tears and nearly threw herself into her mother’s arms to the alarm of her parents. The story came tumbling out between bouts of tears.  She had known it would be hard, that it would hurt, but she hadn’t realized it would be that bad.

While a fair number of the students were just stunned speechless by Shinichi’s transformation, despite the fact that most of them had heard about what had happened at his birthday party that weekend, many of them, especially the boys, had decided to be cruel about it. She had spent the whole day being teased and bullied, something new to her since her alter-ego had been very popular. 

She also had failed to realize just how awkward the logistics would be, namely going to the toilet. Technically she was still a boy and should use the boy’s toilet but since she identified as a girl it would be cruel to make her do so.  But since she was technically still a boy being allowed to use the girl’s toilet was a touchy subject.  It came down to the teachers basically asking all of the girls of their grade if they were comfortable with her using their toilet or not, which was extremely embarrassing for the girl.  Luckily most of the girls were alright with this and for the ones who weren’t they simply asked that she check who was in the toilet before entering and if one of them was in there, wait till they left.

However that had had its own complications when one of the bitchier girls had refused to leave the room so she could go in. Shinichi had nearly wet herself by the time another girl had taken pity on her and pulled the bully out of the toilet so she could enter.

And then there was the soccer team.

They had kicked her off the team today. She had been planning to quit anyway but it still hurt.  Girls aren’t allowed on the team and she had no desire to continue playing anyway, she was already at the top of her game and had only been playing to learn skills to capture criminals, but still...  She had been sneered at and degraded when she went to turn in her resignation to find that she’d already been kicked off the team, and the few teammates that she’d counted as friends had just stood back and said nothing.  She’d kept her chin high, hadn’t let the hurt show.  She’d kept the tears inside until she made it most of the way home.

But the worst thing of it all was that Ran hadn’t said a word to her all day, had barely even looked at her. That was what had hurt most of all.

All her parents could do was listen in silence as she sobbed this all out, hearts once again heavy as they looked at each other over their daughters heaving back. They’d never seen Shinichi cry like this before, but then again, as a boy he’d never undertaken something like this before either.

And so it went for the first couple weeks. Shinichi managed to hold it together at school, seemingly ignoring the teasing and taunts, the stares and occasionally disgusted looks from students and teachers alike.  She was constantly bullied now and utterly alone since Ran still wasn’t speaking to her.  She’d hold it all in until she got home where she’d go to her mother and hold her tight as the tears finally slipped down her cheeks.

She became pale from the stress of it all and she started to lose weight.

There were only two bright spots during those first dark weeks.

The first was the long awaited doctor’s appointment where, after a long talk with the doctor, they filled the prescriptions for her to start her HRT. She would see some results sooner than others she knew but she still couldn’t wait for the day that her body truly matched what she felt inside, and these drugs were going to do it!  The doctor had recommended waiting to do the surgery if she was going to till she was at least eighteen and she agreed with that, the HRT was enough for now.

The second was a surprise to her though she supposed it shouldn’t have been.

It was Kaito yet again.

He called every day after school and let her hang all her troubles on him. While she couldn’t cry on his shoulder it was the next best thing.  He listened, just listened, and sometimes gave advice.  He told her to keep her head high, not to let them know how much they hurt her.  He promised he’d come visit as soon as he could.

Little did she know that that would be sooner than she thought. What he was about to do would change everything for them.

It had been killing Kaito to listen to how Shinichi was treated at school, to listen to his best friend’s pain and not be able to do anything about it. If this kept up he wasn’t sure what Shinichi would do.  He had an idea of how to help, he just wasn’t sure if his mother would go along with it.

He tentatively asked his mother if he could transfer to Shinichi’s school then, sure she was about to say no, started ranting about how Shinichi was being bullied and how she needed him. Kaito was stopped in his tracks when Chikage started to chuckle and told him that she’d already started to fill out the paperwork.  She told him she’d known that he’d be asking soon when she heard how bad it had gotten for Shinichi lately.  Shinichi was his best friend after all, even before Aoko, and right now his best friend needed him.

Kaito just stood there speechless then rushed forward and hugged his mother, murmuring thank you over and over.

Chikage surprised her son once again when she told him of the arrangement she’d made with the Kudo’s and knew she’d done the right thing when he positively beamed.

Aoko was confused at first when Kaito told her he was transferring schools, but when he explained the situation she understood, even if she didn’t like it. She’d met Shinichi after all and she liked the boy, err-girl now she supposed, and knew that he, gah she, was Kaito’s best friend other than her.  It sounded like Shinichi was having a really rough time of it since her transformation and was all alone so she couldn’t really blame Kaito for wanting to help his friend through this.  Still, she sighed, she was going to miss him.  Though it wasn’t like he was moving away, he still lived next door to her so she’d still see him.  He wasn’t getting away that easily!

That weekend Shinichi was shocked when Kaito showed up at the front door of the Kudo mansion with a pile of luggage.

“Kaito? What are you doing here?”

Kaito just grinned, “Will you look at you! You look amazing!”  The exuberant teen picked his friend up and spun her around on the front steps to her protests before sitting her back on her feet and frowning at her.  “Though I think you’ve lost a bit of weight.”

Shinichi flushed and looked away. Choosing to ignore the comment she instead focused on the bags behind Kaito.  “Well come in, and why do you need so many bags if you’re just visiting for the weekend?”

Kaito grabbed his bags and entered the house, slipping off his shoes in the genkan and trading them for a pair of house slippers. “Well actually…,” the boy began.

“Kaito will be staying with us for a couple months,” Yusaku’s voice rang out as he exited the library where he’d been working.

Sapphire eyes widened in disbelief as her head turned between her father and her still ridiculously grinning best friend. “What?  I don’t…,” she trailed off.

Kaito dropped his bags and walked over to her. “I’ve transferred to your school.  Let’s see them try to bully you with me around,” the prankster smirked and she nearly shivered at the malicious glee she could sense from him at the thought.  He smiled and suddenly he was just her best friend again, “The transferring was my idea, though my mother was ahead of me on it.  Our parents cooked up the plan to have me stay here for a couple months till things settle down some, that alright with you?”

Her chin trembled as she tried to hold back her tears. She’s cried enough lately, but these, these were good tears.  She was so touched that he’d go so far for her.  “Oh Kaito,” her voice wavered as she spoke.  Shinichi suddenly threw her arms around Kaito’s neck and hugged him tight, “Arigatou, Kaito.”

Kaito blushed faintly as he spluttered slightly before awkwardly hugging his friend back and replying, “No problem, what are friends for?” in a voice slightly higher pitched than normal.

Yusaku smiled at the pair thoughtfully from where he leaned on the library’s doorframe.


	3. Chapter 3

Kaito’s arrival and transfer was when things started to look up for Shinichi. Oh things didn’t change overnight but slowly but surely they did change.

Chikage had made sure that Kaito was placed in Shinichi’s classes since it wouldn’t do much good if he wasn’t with the girl, she had stressed that to the school. Chikage could be rather terrifying if she wanted to be, and they knew this had to be a hard time for the girl, so they did what they could to place the boy in her classes, as such their schedules were a near perfect match.

Come Monday morning Shinichi’s homeroom gaped in surprise when her doppelganger strolled in and introduced himself as Kuroba Kaito, a new student. The whole class looked from Kaito to Shinichi and back again in amazement.  Very few of the people that Shinichi used to call friends had met Kaito after all, since he lived thirty minutes away in Ekoda.

When Kaito strolled casually past Ran’s desk he shot her a scathing glare out of sight of Shinichi to which she just flushed in shame and looked away.

Sonoko for her part was glad to see Kaito. She’d been pulled between her friends for two weeks and it was wearing her nerves thin.  Watching how the others were treating Shinichi was killing her, but Ran was her best friend, even if she knew deep down that Ran was in the wrong this time.  Kaito’s appearance took a weight off the heiress’s shoulders.  She could leave Shinichi to Kaito until Ran finally was ready to talk to Shinichi again.

Kaito stopped at the seat directly behind Shinichi and told the boy sitting there that if he didn’t move to the empty seat an aisle away, where the teacher had directed Kaito to sit, he was going to dye his hair pink.

The boy was flabbergasted at first, and then refused, and Kaito started to count down from thirty. After that the boy said something unflattering about Shinichi and why would Kaito want to sit there anyway.

Kaito’s face darkened when he noticed his friend subtly tense, “Time’s up.” There was a puff of pink smoke and a few seconds later the boy was somehow standing in the aisle while Kaito was lounging in his new seat and the boy not only had pink hair but his school uniform had been exchanged for a girl’s uniform.

Kaito got his first detention for that but it was so worth it, in his opinion, to get to see the soft look on Shinichi’s face as she wordlessly thanked him.

It quickly got around school that if you messed with Shinichi you’d get pranked by Kaito and nobody really wanted that. Still Kaito got quite the number of detentions in those first couple weeks defending his friend.  There would have been even more if they could have proved a few of the more obscure pranks were done by him.

Slowly but surely the bullies started to leave Shinichi alone and the teasing and taunts died off. It wasn’t perfect.  There were things muttered under people’s breaths and still none of her so called friends would talk to her except Kaito.  And even Kaito couldn’t be with her 24/7 so there were still a few incidents from some of the braver, or stupider, students.  He also couldn’t protect her from the toilet bullies though he was always quick to extract revenge if Shinichi told him what happened afterwards.

Shinichi started to get the color back in her cheeks and she put on some weight. There were still some shadows in her eyes but within just a couple weeks she was looking much better and her parents were so thankful to Kaito for that.

About a month after Kaito came to stay with them Shinichi’s neighbor, the crazy inventor Professor Agasa, called the whole household over to unveil some new invention of his. She was stunned speechless when the invention turned out to be gifts for her.  Her parents told her that with all of the bullying they’d been worried that it’d escalate at some point and they wanted to be sure that she had some way to protect herself besides her soccer skills, so they’d commissioned the Professor to make them a couple somethings to ease their minds.

The first and her favorite was a stun-gun wrist watch. It looked like any normal girl’s watch, if maybe slightly larger, made of silver metal.  Press a button and the glass flipped up into a targeting system and with another press of a button an anesthetic needle shot out.  The Professor proudly told her that whoever she shot with this would suffer no side effects and would be out from between fifteen minutes and an hour depending on body weight.

The second she was slightly less thrilled about and it took a bit of pleading from her parents to agree to wear them. They looked like ordinary earrings and if they were she’d be a bit more thrilled since it meant she had permission to get her ears pierced.  However when it came to the Professor’s inventions nothing is as it seems.  Those seemingly ordinary silver balls actually contained sophisticated trackers.  Just in case, her parents pleaded. 

Kaito laughed at her as she gave in.

She had her ears pierced on the spot, by her mother no less! Though, she had to admit, the earrings did look very nice.

The Professor was one of the only people who didn’t treat her differently, who made sure to use the right pronouns when referring to her, and with these gifts he’d managed to cement himself into her heart even further which she tried to show him when she thanked him before they left.

The two weeks dragged by as slow as the last month though Shinichi did notice a shift among her classmates. Kaito was getting into less and less trouble defending her.  She was becoming old news and as such had lost some of her shiny newness that attracted the tormentors.  They were starting to view her as normal.

It was then that something amazing occurred. That Saturday Ran showed up on the doorstep of the Kudo mansion, much to Shinichi’s surprise.  They had a long overdue talk, and this time she really listened when Shinichi explained why she felt she had to do all of this instead of letting her hurt feelings get in the way.  While Ran still didn’t really understand, she could tell that this was important to Shinichi, after all it would have to be to endure what she had the last two months.

In the end there was crying and tears and apologies aplenty from both parties. Shinichi was so relieved when Ran hesitatingly asked if she’d forgive her because she missed her friend that she blurted out her of course almost before Ran finished speaking.

Kaito however wasn’t quite so forgiving. When he’d told Shinichi at his birthday party to give Ran time he hadn’t thought it would take the girl two months to come around.  Still Shinichi seemed happy so he resolved to try to forgive Ran for her silence as well, for Shinichi if nothing else.

Sonoko was ecstatic when Ran told her that she and Shinichi had made up. Finally she wouldn’t be in the middle of all of this anymore and could resume her own sort of friendship with Shinichi.

Come Monday everybody at school was immediately aware that the group dynamic had changed when Shinichi came walking into the school with Kaito, Ran, and Sonoko at her side.

Things were finally starting to look up for Shinichi.


	4. Chapter 4

Fast forward two years, everybody is now sixteen, and much has changed for Shinichi.

She and Ran are still the best of friends, almost as close as they were before, and she’s even closer to Sonoko now which had surprised her at first. Kaito is still her rock, her very best friend, always there for her.  Although, she can’t put her finger on it but something has changed recently.  Like he’s keeping secrets from her and she doesn’t like it.

Things have settled down at school, though when they first started high school things had flared up again until the bullies got tired of eating Kaito’s pranks and even a few of her own soccer balls. Now it’s like they’ve almost forgotten that she was ever anything but a girl though she knows that isn’t really the case, but still she enjoys the feeling.

Shinichi no longer needs a wig to pass as a girl, her own hair has grown out to just past shoulder length and sometimes she can’t help but play with it, luxuriating in the feeling that the wig could never bring her.

The HRT has worked its magic as well. Her skin is softer, she never sprouted facial hair of any kind like some of the boys in class, her voice didn’t deepen, and most importantly she has a figure.  Not too much of one admittedly, not yet, but she does.  Her body is most assuredly feminine looking and the absolute best thing?  She actually needs to wear a bra now!  The day she realized she needed to start wearing a bra was one of the best days of her life, no doubt.  Her breasts are still pretty small, but they’re there, and sometimes she had the insane urge to grab them and squeeze them in happiness.  Never in public though, she’s not stupid.

She’d also finally started to make a name for herself as a detective. It’s taken longer than she would have liked, namely because of her age and identified gender, but people are finally starting to know her name.  Though that comes with its own set of problems.

Inspector Megure and most of the other officers in Division 1 treated her like a normal girl and were careful to use the correct pronouns when talking to and about her and had earned her eternal fondness and respect for that. Though it had frustrated her to no end when she was told that crime scenes were no place for teenage girls.  Still she eventually made her name as a detective and Megure started to call her in on some of the tougher cases, if she wasn’t there already.  She swore cases followed her around some days.

It was when the reporters noticed her that things went to hell in a handbasket. If they’d just reported about the brilliant high school detective who’d solved the cases she’d have no problem with it, but they’d discovered that she was transgender, that she used to be a he, and of course they had to report that to.  It was big news they told her, despite her protests, a new transgender celebrity.  And so the whole of Japan learned about her, all about her.  They had meant well she could tell, but now everywhere she went she got those stares.  Sometimes people would refuse to talk to her at crime scenes when they recognized her, until the police intervened at least. 

It was exhausting.

Tonight hadn’t started well for Shinichi. It had started with a phone call to Kaito where he had rushed her off the phone with a hurried and rather pathetic excuse.  He’d changed in the last few months, started pushing her away, and it hurt her somewhere deep inside where she maybe didn’t want to examine all of the reasons why.

She’d been somewhat relieved when she’d been given the opportunity to go up in the helicopter with Inspector Megure and help him thwart a new bandit that had shown up recently after an 8 year hiatus, Kaitou 1412 or Kaitou Kid as the masses called him. While she wasn’t normally interested in thieves, this one intrigued her and she could use the distraction from Kaito’s behavior earlier anyway.

Her brain was racing a mile a minute as they arrived at the Ekoda clock tower. Just how was the thief planning to ‘steal’ a whole clock tower?

She was in her element as she used the police radio and her laptop to her advantage, cutting off the thief’s avenues of escape, ignoring everything else in favor of chasing down this thief. She was confused when the report came that he’d ditched his police uniform since it didn’t make any tactical sense and her brows furrowed as she thought.

Twelve loud bongs rang the air as the clock rang midnight.

Suddenly pink smoke erupted from the base of the clock face much to her and Megure’s surprise and when the smoke dissipated the hands of the clock tower, which had but moments before been pointing upwards at the twelve, were gone.

Her eyes narrowed as she noticed a slight movement of the ‘clock face’. A sick feeling started to gather in her stomach.  These tricks and misdirections, the pink smoke, the voice tricks, they were all too familiar to her, and hadn’t she been thinking he’d been hiding something from her?  Still some part of her wouldn’t let her believe it, it couldn’t be true, and she wouldn’t believe it till she saw it with her own eyes, so she shoved it to the back of her mind.

Shinichi directed the pilot to fly the helicopter even closer to the tower and gave a satisfied smirk when the slight flutter she had noticed became a very noticeable wave. She briefly explained to Megure and opened the helicopter’s door before leaning back and smiling disarmingly as she told Megure she was just going to borrow this for a moment as she took his side arm.  As his hands waved frantically around and he protested she leaned out the door and briefly aimed before shooting the bar holding the projector screen in place.

The screen flapped up in the air and her heart stopped when she saw the figure in white standing on the clock hands. Her eyes widened in shock, even with the ridiculous outfit she recognized that figure.

“Kaito,” she whispered.

She saw him turn to look at the helicopter and notice her sitting in the open doorway. Even from this distance she could see his unmonocled eye widen before his damnable Poker Face slammed down.

Before she could do anything else he leaned upwards and shot, it looked like playing cards?, out of the gun he carried into the top of the screen and it detached, floating down to gently land on the audience below, hiding his escape.

Shinichi released a breath, glad Kaito had managed to escape, though for the life of her she couldn’t figure out why he was doing this. She was barely listening to Megure talk to Inspector Nakamori, Aoko’s father, over the radio until they mentioned Kid failing and a code and having to keep the tower standing until they figured it out.  She glanced curiously over Megure’s shoulder at the code written in his notebook then leaned back with a small smile. 

While she might not know why Kaito had decided to become Kaitou Kid, she knew why he’d targeted the clock tower. The code said it all.  And besides, she knew all about how important it was to him and Aoko so of course he would devise a plan to save the tower from being demolished.

After the arriving back at headquarters and filling out her report for the evening Shinichi said her goodbye’s to the officers and grabbed a taxi, giving Kaito’s address in Ekoda before curling up in the back seat.

Suddenly it hit her, everything that had happened tonight and she started to shake. She had almost got her best friend arrested.  She had shot at her best friend, _shot_!  What if she’d hit him?  What if…she struggled to calm her breathing.  But she hadn’t, Kaito was fine.  And she was going to make sure that ahou told her everything about what the hell he thought he was doing if she had to sit on him. 

She tried to ignore the warm feeling that thought ignited in her gut to no avail. She supposed, if only to herself, and in the safety of an anonymous taxi, she could admit that she didn’t just have friendly feelings towards Kaito. 

She’d always had a little bit of a crush on him, even back when she was a boy, but with the way Kaito had stood up for her these last two years, her knight in shining armor, well how could she help but fall for him? It was part of the reason why everything tonight was hitting her so hard.  She had shot at the boy she loved without even realizing it.  She didn’t ever plan to tell Kaito how she felt.  Being friends with a girl like her was one thing, being in a relationship with one was another.  She’d rather be friends with him than nothing at all.

Shinichi did fully plan to yell at him about tonight though, she thought to herself when the cab finally pulled up in front of the Kuroba’s house in Ekoda. She paid the driver and climbed out.  As the taxi pulled away she took a deep breath to calm herself, and then stormed up the path to the front door where she nearly laid on the doorbell.

A minute later the door opened to a surprised, and slightly nervous, Kaito already wearing his pajamas. “Shi-Shinichi, what are you doing here?” he stuttered slightly.

Her eyes narrowed in righteous indignation, “Don’t. Don’t you even pretend that wasn’t you tonight Kaito.”  Her voice was low but vehement.  She poked her finger into his chest as she spoke and he stumbled backwards in surprise, giving her entrance into the house which she gratefully took.  This was not a conversation to be had outside where prying ears could hear. 

“Don’t you think I know my best friend? Don’t you think I know your tricks by heart by now?  Did you think I wouldn’t recognize just because you were wearing that stupid hat and monocle?  I could still see most of your face ahou!”  As she spoke she almost absentmindedly kicked off her shoes in the genkan as she pushed Kaito further back in the house with her finger and her words.  “Baka, baka, baka!  I almost shot you tonight, do you realize that!  What the hell Kaito?  Is this why you’ve been pushing me away?”  She hated that even she could hear the pain in her voice on that last sentence.

Kaito sighed, he knew the moment he spotted Shinichi in that helicopter earlier tonight that he was well and truly caught. He knew there was no way she wouldn’t recognize him, but still he’d held out the faintest hope.  He’d never wanted to get his friend mixed up with all of this though it looked like that ship had sailed.  He just hoped she wouldn’t arrest him.  He didn’t really think she would, but then again she might just be angry enough to do it.  Of course, looking at her she seemed more hurt then angry.  He winced when he realized that.

He extended his forearms, wrists together, without saying a word, the gesture a clear question.

Shinichi just gaped at him for a moment before smacking his arms away. “I’m not going to arrest you, baka!  Not unless you don’t have a good reason for doing all of this, and you better damn well have a good reason!  So,” her voice quieted and she paused, “why?”  Her sapphire eyes were filled with all the conflicting emotions she felt.

Kaito smiled sadly, “I do. Come with me, and let me tell you a story.”  He beckoned her up to his room.

Sometime later Shinichi was sitting in the Kaitou Kid lair in amazement, still trying to absorb a rather fantastical story. A story where Kaito’s father Toichi was the original Kaitou Kid and the stage accident he died in 8 years ago was no accident but premeditated murder.  A murder performed by a shadowy syndicate who had tried to hire Toichi to find some legendary gem named Pandora which was supposed to glow red under a full moon and grant immortality.  It sounded like bull to Shinichi but Kaito made a point when he pointed out that it didn’t matter if the gem existed or not, those people believed in it and were willing to kill for it.  A chill had washed over her then.

Connections snapped together in her mind.

Toichi had refused to find the gem for this syndicate, because men like them could do terrible things if gifted with immortality. Instead he’d tried to find it himself and gotten himself killed when they’d discovered his identity.  Kaito had apparently found out most of this when he’d fallen through the painting in his bedroom and discovered the Kid lair and realized the recently returned Kid couldn’t be the real Kid and confronted him, only to find out that the man was his father’s old assistant, a man named Jii. 

Kaito had decided to take up his father’s mantle to try to find out the truth of what happened, only to be confronted by his father’s killer, a man with the improbable codename Snake, on his first heist, who mistook him for his father and spilled the beans about the syndicate and Pandora and the truth about his father’s death. Kaito had vowed to bring his father’s killer and this syndicate of his to justice and to find and destroy Pandora so that something like this would never happen again.

She wanted to beat her fists on his chest. He was making a target of himself, a giant white target, trying to draw the shadows out.  This was dangerous, he could be killed, but she knew he knew that and ultimately it was his choice and she couldn’t stop him.  At least not without arresting him and she didn’t want to do that.  Shinichi couldn’t say that she agreed with how he was going about things, but she couldn’t blame him either.  It was his father after all, he’d been so close to his father.  She still remembered how torn up he’d been when Toichi had died, though it felt weird to remember now since she’d still been a boy back then.

She took a deep breath, “Okay, alright,” she murmured to herself. She looked up at Kaito, who had been watching her this whole time with slight trepidation. 

He could almost see the thoughts racing through her head, the gears turning, and connections being made and frankly it frightened him a bit when it was turned on him.

“Why?” she asked quietly.

“Eh?” he blinked, having expected something a bit different.

Shinichi rolled her eyes, “Why didn’t you tell me about this sooner? I’ll say it again, I could have shot you tonight Kaito, not to mention gotten you arrested.  If I had known it was you I wouldn’t have done that and this whole debacle could have been avoided.  Not to mention I could be helping you catch this syndicate of yours.”

Kaito blushed slightly and looked away, aware that his reasons were entirely selfish.

Shinichi growled out his name in frustration when it looked like he wasn’t going to answer her before settling on a wounded look. “If you didn’t trust me you should have just said so.  If that’s the case I’ll just-,” she started to get up to leave but was cut off when Kaito’s hand shot out and grabbed her wrist.

“That’s not it,” he said quietly. Kaito looked up at her, face strangely earnest, “I just-I just wanted to protect you.”

Her eyes widened slightly and she sat back down. “I’m not made of glass just because I’m a girl you know,” she said quietly.

“I know. But,” he looked down as he mumbled low, his bangs hiding his faintly blushing face, “I couldn’t bear it if something happened to you, especially because of me.”

“Kaito,” she breathed, eyes wide and cheeks dusted pink. He couldn’t possibly mean what she thought he did, could he?

Kaito thought she looked so beautiful in that moment, sapphire eyes wide, cheeks rosy, and thought to hell with it. Worst she could say was no right?

Truth was he’d been in love with his best friend for most of the last couple years. How could he not be?  She was beautiful, smart, courageous, stubborn (though he wasn’t sure if that last one was a plus or a minus really), kind hearted, loyal…he could go on for hours.  Even when she was still a boy he’d had a slight and very awkward crush.  Awkward since he didn’t like guys like that and wasn’t sure why Shinichi was the exception other than that he loved his friend’s mind since he challenged him like no other. 

Everything seemed to click for him at Shinichi’s 14th birthday party.  It just made so much sense really.  He’d always felt like Shinichi was keeping something from him, had noticed that Shinichi seemed uncomfortable in his own skin sometimes, and a dozen other small things that most people wouldn’t notice.  Was it really so hard to believe that somehow he’d seen past the surface to the girl inside without even realizing it?

The moment his friend had transitioned things had gotten awkward for Kaito. It wasn’t hard for him to see Shinichi as a ‘real’ girl, in fact it was disturbingly easy.  She was just too beautiful not to notice, both inside and out, and then with them being thrown together every day at school was it any wonder that those pesky little feelings of his grew.

Before long he was head over heels for his best friend, but he wasn’t sure how she felt about him. He wouldn’t lie to himself and say that the whole technically having a male body thing hadn’t at least slightly freaked him out at first, he wasn’t perfect after all, but it didn’t take him long to realize that it didn’t matter to him.  It was Shinichi’s body, and if he ever got the chance to touch it it would be a privilege, whether it still had male bits attached or not.  He also knew she wasn’t ready for any type of relationship at the time so he held back and gave her time. 

Now though? It’d been two years and this was the best opening he’d probably ever get.  If she said no he try to be content in being her friend, but one doesn’t get anywhere without taking chances and well, he’s always been a bit of a risk taker.

Kaito stood up, took two steps, and then knelt in front of Shinichi where she was sitting in one of the Kid lair’s chairs. His cheeks were pink but his eyes determined as his hand came up to cup her cheek and he leaned in slowly.

Shinichi’s eyes were wide with shock as Kaito leaned in. Was this really happening?  Was he really about to- her racing thoughts cut off abruptly when his lips slotted into place over hers.  He was kissing her, _Kaito_ was really kissing her!

Suddenly she realized that her eyes were still open wide and she was just stiffly sitting there like a bump on a log. She let her eyes drift closed and leaned into Kaito a bit.  It wasn’t like she knew what she was doing, this was her first kiss after all, so she just tried to go with the flow.

In the end it was a rather chaste kiss but it still sent her heart fluttering like it had wings and was about to take off.

Both their cheeks were bright pink when they separated and she couldn’t stop her fingers from coming up to rest on her still tingling lips. She searched his eyes, trying to find an answer to his actions there, too afraid to outright ask.

Kaito cleared his throat and his cheeks darkened another shade, “Truth is Shinichi, the reason I didn’t want to get you involved, didn’t want to see you get hurt, is because I-,” he reached up and scratched the back of his neck awkwardly and gulped,” I love you. It would kill me if you got hurt because of me.  If you don’t feel the same that’s alright, I-I’ll still be your friend if you let me-.” 

His words cut off abruptly when she placed her finger over his lips as he started to ramble. They were both pretty much beet red at this point but before she said her piece she had something to ask the boy still kneeling before her.

Shinichi removed her finger as she spoke and gestured to her body, “And what about…”

Kaito’s eyes were serious when he reached forward and cupped both of her cheeks, making sure that she looked him in the eyes to see the truth of his words. “That doesn’t matter to me.  I see _you_ Shinichi, I always have, and you’re the most beautiful _girl_ I’ve ever met.”

Her eyes filled with tears when she saw the truth in his gaze. He really truly believed those words.  He really did love her.  Her breath hitched on a sob as she threw herself at him to his surprise, landing in his lap with her arms tight around his neck and making him fall backwards to sit on the floor.

She nestled her face into his neck as she whispered, “I love you to.”

Shinichi felt his body tense beneath hers before he asked, “Really?” in a hopeful tone.

She nodded into his shoulder, “I just didn’t think you’d ever feel the same way,” she added in a low voice.

“Oh, Shinichi.” His arms came up to wrap around her back and pulled her tight into his body as they just sat there for awhile.

Eventually she let go and leaned back, trying to surreptitiously wipe her face only to have him smile softly as a hand came up to wipe a stray tear off her cheek. “How?” she whispered.  “How can you so easily forget who I used to be, what I used to be?  I know you’re straight Kaito so…how?”  She turned questioning eyes on the boy whose lap she was still sitting in.

Kaito sighed as he trailed his hand down the side of her neck to hook on the necklace she wore, “Do you know why I chose this necklace for you?”

Shinichi shook her head, confused at the seeming conversation change. The necklace in question was a beautiful sapphire and amethyst butterfly that Kaito had given to her on her 16th birthday.  She almost never took it off and she knew why she loved it, but she didn’t know why Kaito had chosen that particular motif.

He smiled, “It’s because that’s how I see you. It’s not that I’ve forgotten who you used to be, I could never.  You will always be my best friend, no matter your gender.  But I’ve come to see your male form as the unfinished caterpillar, creeping through life, before he spun a cocoon and you emerged, the beautiful butterfly.  Finally complete.  This is your true form Shinichi, you are my butterfly.”  He blushed again as he said that but remained steadfast as he knew she needed to understand this.

Her lips parted as she gazed at him in wonder, how did he know?

“What?” Kaito asked slightly defensively.

Shinichi blinked and cleared her throat, “Nothing, it’s just…that’s how I’ve always seen it to. It’s one of the reasons I love the necklace so much.  I’m not sure why you keep surprising me, I should be used to it by now.  I-,” she blushed slightly, “I think I would like to be your butterfly Kaito.”

A rather stupid grin crossed his face when she said that, he couldn’t believe things were going so well.

A look of fond exasperation crossed her face when she saw the grin but she let it go. “So, what now?”

Kaito thought for a moment. “Go on a date with me?” he asked hopefully.

Shinichi gave him a droll look. “Well yes that is how these things usually go but that isn’t quite what I meant.  Do we tell people or…” she trailed off leaving him to interpret what she meant.

He cocked his head to the side, “Well I’m more for letting them try to figure it out for themselves but…” he trailed off as he caught the vulnerability in her eyes and suddenly he realized what she really meant and he sobered. “You are not somebody’s dirty little secret Shinichi, especially not mine,” he said seriously.  “I’ll shout it from the rooftops if you want me to.  I’m not ashamed of you.  I have no intention of keeping us a secret so get that thought out of your head.”

Oh she loved this boy, she thought as she fought yet again not to cry. Unable and unwilling to stop herself, she grabbed his face and tugged it down to hers slamming her lips on his.  She could feel his surprise at first before he melted into her, returning the kiss.  This kiss was a fair bit more passionate than the first, if a bit sloppy and uncoordinated since neither of them really knew what they were doing just yet.  Still, to them, it was perfect.

They were both panting a bit when they pulled back and Kaito couldn’t help but quip, “Guess I must have said something right, huh?” This caused her to laugh and slap his arm before curling into his chest happily as he held her in comfortable silence.

It was only several minutes later that she dared disturb the bubble when a thought occurred to her and she returned to the original subject. She sat up and slid off his lap to sit beside him as she spoke, “You do know that I’m going to be helping you from now on right?”

Kaito cursed silently, he knew that everything was going too well. “But Shin-chan,” he tried.

Shinichi blinked, momentarily startled at the new nickname, something that before now only her mother had called her, before cutting him off abruptly. “But nothing!  Don’t you think that if it would hurt you if I got hurt that the same goes for me?!”  Her voice was vehement, eyes imploring, and Kaito was stunned speechless.  “It would kill me just as much to find out something had happened to you that I could have prevented if you’d have only let me help you!”

“Shinichi,” Kaito’s eyes were wide.

He…hadn’t really thought of it that way. He’d been so busy trying to protect her that he hadn’t thought about it from her point of view.  He sighed and nodded, he knew when he was beat, “Alright,” he said quietly.

Shinichi sagged in relief when he capitalized before getting on with business. “I won’t help with the heists and the stealing.  That’s on you.  I will help with the syndicate after you though.  First and foremost, I refuse to let you go out there to play target practice with men with guns without body armor of some kind so please tell me you already have some.”

Kaito flushed lightly and his eyes darted away, “Well,” he drew out the word before starting the laugh nervously.

Her eyes widened in disbelief. “I fell in love with an idiot,” she said in slight shock.

Kaito pouted at that, “That’s not very nice Shin-chan.”

“But it’s true!” she shot back. “Who taunts men with guns without body armor?”

“My dad’s doesn’t fit me and it’s not like it’s easy to obtain in Japan without leaving a paper trail you know!” he defended himself. “I was going to try to obtain some next school break when I visit my mother.”

She sighed, conceding the point. “Fine, we’ll just call my dad and he can use his contacts to get you,” she paused then corrected herself, “get us both some body armor.”

Kaito’s eyes widened, “WHAT?! And just what are you planning to tell him we need it for?”

Shinichi gave him a droll stare, “The truth, more or less.” As she watched her boyfriend, and oh how that word made her heart flutter, become more frantic, she sighed.  “Let me clue you in on a little something I learned down at the station tonight Kaito.” 

He stopped panicking at her words and stopped to listen.

“Our fathers were friends, correct?” Confusedly he nodded.  “Well when I asked for information about Kaitou Kid after I realized it was you, do you know what I was told?”  Kaito shook his head.  “Apparently my father chased the original Kaitou Kid all those years ago.  They were rivals.  Now think about what you know about my father.  Do you really think that he didn’t know that his friend and Kaitou Kid were one and the same?”

She saw dawning comprehension in Kaito’s eyes as he started to get it and smiled.  

“If he knew about your father, and he had to have or I’ll be very disappointed in him, then it stands to reason that he probably has figured out that you’re the current Kaitou Kid as well. Also, he’d never turn you in, no matter what.  My family owes you too much and you know it,” she said the last softly.  “Besides, he’ll probably want to help once he hears all of this.  Your father was his friend you know.”

“Shinichi, I can’t-,” Shinichi abruptly cut off what she could tell would be a refusal.

“I cannot and will not let you do all of this on your own, do you understand? This is too much for one person to do alone.  Trying to do so will only end up with you getting yourself killed and I refuse to allow that.  You will accept our help or so help me I will never speak to you again, understand?”

While a part of him knew she was right, another part of him raged against the idea, afraid that somebody would get hurt while fighting his battle, his mission. Still, there was no arguing with those snapping sapphire eyes and as much as her words sometimes hurt, he had no desire for her to never talk to him again.  Kaito deflated a bit, he was so whipped, “Yes ma’am.”

The fire went out of her eyes when she realized that Kaito had given in. “Arigatou Kaito.”

Suddenly a yawn stretched her jaw and she gave a sheepish grin when she realized how tired she was. “What time is it anyway?”

“Eto,” Kaito glanced at a clock hanging on one of the walls, “3:30, no wonder you’re tired.”

He clambered to his feet and held out his hand to pull her up which she gladly accepted, “C’mon.” He pulled her over to the ladder out of the Kid lair and moments later they were back in his bedroom.

Shinichi glanced around nervously, being in his bedroom had a new meaning now and she fought not to blush when her gaze landed on the bed. “I should go, it’s late and we can call my parents tomorrow, or I guess later today now.”

“Where are they now anyway?” Kaito asked curiously.

“Los Angeles, still avoiding dad’s editors last I heard from them.” Shinichi smiled fondly when she said this. 

Her parents had finally left on their world trip when she turned sixteen and things had seemed to settle down for her. She had encouraged them, she knew how much they had wanted to go before and that they’d only stayed for her sake.  She almost hated to disturb their travels but she knew that she and Kaito needed their help and that both of her parents would want to assist in this investigation.  For Toichi, who was important to both of them.

“Well, I’ll just go-,” she was going to say find a taxi but Kaito cut her off.

“Stay.”

She blinked stupidly at him, brought up short.

“Please, it’s late. Just…stay.”

Shinichi’s gaze drifted towards the bed unwillingly.

Kaito’s eyes widened and his hands started waving wildly, “No funny business! Promise!  I just want-,” he dropped his hands and blushed, “I want to hold you, make sure this is real and isn’t a dream.”

Her cheeks were red, but suddenly she wanted that to. She gulped, but nodded.  “Alright,” she said low.

His relief was palpable as he retrieved another set of his pajamas for her to wear and she nervously changed in the bathroom.

Shinichi felt awkward at first as they climbed into his bed, stiffly laying next to each other, but she quickly relaxed and melted into him, lying with her head on his chest and her arm over his waist. His arms were wrapped around her and as she drifted off to the sound of his heartbeat she thought that she could get definitely get used to this.


	5. Chapter 5

Things changed after that.

Shinichi had called her father after they got up in the early afternoon, very grateful that it was the weekend and they didn’t have school, and just like she’d thought he hadn’t asked any questions when she requested body armor for herself and Kaito.

They’d had a cryptic conversation where no real information was passed but she’d still managed to convey that she’d discovered Kaito’s secret and they both needed the protection and that there was more to the story that she couldn’t say over the phone. Her father had just hummed in thought, told her he understood and would procure the requested items if she sent him their measurements, and he and her mother would hop the first flight back afterwards.

Kaito had made good on his promise come Monday. While he didn’t shout it from the rooftops, he didn’t hide the change in their relationship either.  He did exactly as he said he would, he let them figure it out for themselves.

Still nobody said that their classmates were slow. They’d entered holding hands after all, she’d spent the whole day nearly glowing with happiness, they were sitting closer together than usual at lunch, and they couldn’t keep their eyes off each other.

They’d been getting odd looks all day but Ran was the first one brave enough to broach the subject. You could’ve heard a pin drop when she looked back and forth between them and then asked them if they’d started dating or something.

Every student in hearing range just froze, desperately curious to know the answer to that.

The couple blushed and glanced at each other before nodding sheepishly. Sonoko let out a squeal when she realized Ran had been right. 

Ran just smiled, glad the two had finally admitted their feelings for one another. She had long since gotten over her crush on Shinichi and it had been plain to her for a long time that Kaito loved their friend.  She couldn’t blame him for holding back, even she knew that Shinichi hadn’t been ready back then and theirs was bound to be a bit of a bumpy relationship anyway no matter what.  Still, Ran had seen the looks Shinichi had been giving Kaito lately and it made her heart glad that her friend had found someone who could accept her as she was no questions.  Ran knew that Kaito would never hurt Shinichi so she, who had become very protective of her friend, had no problems with this new relationship at all.

Sonoko was excitedly questioning the couple about when this had happened and got a severely edited version of what happened Saturday night. Shinichi told them she’d gone to Ekoda after the clock tower heist because she was mad at Kaito due to the phone call they’d shared right before and after arguing he’d ended up confessing to her and she’d confessed right back.

Shinichi and Kaito both turned bright red when Sonoko slyly asked if Shinichi had stayed there that night since it was so late. They all knew that Kaito’s mother was off in Las Vegas right now so it wasn’t hard to get what she was implying.

Even Ran was slightly shocked when Shinichi admitted that she had, though Shinichi was adamant that they’d just slept.

It didn’t take long for the news to spread all over the school, with mixed results, though eventually things did die down again.

Shinichi’s parents arrived back in Japan a couple weeks later with the promised body armor in tow.

Yusaku almost immediately noticed the change in his daughter’s and Kaito’s relationship but said nothing, just smiled to himself, pleased.

Yukiko however nearly broke glass with her squeal of delight when she realized that her Shin-chan and Kai-chan were dating now. She was absolutely thrilled and was nearly wriggling in happiness, demanding her daughter give her all the details while Kaito sweatdropped and Yusaku fondly shook his head at his wife’s antics.

After an embarrassed Shinichi gave her mother a brief rundown on when and how her and Kaito’s relationship had changed they finally got to the point of her calling them back to Japan.

They were all sitting in the library at this point. She and Kaito were sitting next to each other on the small couch and her father was sitting in his favorite armchair across the coffee table from them with her mother perched on the arm of it.

“So,” he started off, “based on our conversation I’m guessing that you figured out Kaito’s little secret then Shinichi? If I’m not mistaken I read about your confrontation with a certain white clad thief a couple weeks ago at the Ekoda clock tower, was that when?”

Shinichi rolled her eyes, “Yes, but not before I shot at this barou on accident.”

Her parents’ eyes widened. “Shot?!” they echoed in unison.

Shinichi quickly explained the trick Kaito had used, “I was shooting at the bar holding the screen but still.”

Kaito intervened, “C’mon Shin-chan. You’ve already chewed my ear off about this.  Can’t you just let it go already?  I’m sorry I didn’t tell you alright, it’ll never happen again.”

The two quickly devolved into bickering as they revived an old argument, both forgetting momentarily that they had an audience.

 Yusaku and Yukiko just watched them for a moment before looking at each other and starting to chuckle, effectively reminding the teenagers of their audience and ending the bickering.

“Anyway tou-san, I’m guessing that you were aware that Toichi-occhan was the original Kaitou Kid?”

“I was. He was my friend as well as my rival and we both enjoyed the times I tried to catch him, though I admit I’d have never turned him over to the police if I had.  That’s why I knew it was Kaito-kun who had taken up his father’s mantle when I heard of Kid’s return.  Still, something else has happened if I’m not mistaken, for you to request body armor for the both of you.”

Shinichi nodded and looked at Kaito to continue the story.

He took a deep breath, “Were you aware that my father was murdered?”

Yukiko gasped in shock but Yusaku’s eyes just narrowed. “I suspected as much, but there was no proof.  He’d been acting strangely for weeks but whenever I asked him what was wrong he brushed me off.  I knew it had to be connected somehow but I could never prove it.  Tell me, where did you come across this information?”

And so Kaito spent the next while holding Shinichi’s hand tightly as he poured out his story.

Yukiko was just as dismayed as Shinichi had been to realize what Kaito was doing by making himself a target, especially without any backup or body armor.

Shinichi just sat there with a smug look on her face as she watched her mother berate Kaito, until of course Kaito managed to derail her mother off on another sparkling romance filled tangent when he told her why he’d kept Shinichi out of it all this time.

Yusaku just listened to this all with a thoughtful look. He understood why the boy had tried to do this on his own and he appreciated him trying to protect Shinichi, but in the end it was her choice to get involved or not and he couldn’t fault her for wanting to protect the boy she loved.  He also agreed with his daughter that this was too big for one person to do alone.  Besides, he wanted to bring his friend’s killers to justice as well.

“So,” he broke into his wife’s romance filled rantings, “what are your plans Shinichi?”

“I’ve already told Kaito that I won’t help him with the heists, but I want to help bring Toichi-occhan’s killers to justice. I want to bring down this syndicate.  I thought you might like to help tou-san, since he was your friend.”

Yusaku nodded, “You thought right. I’ll make a few calls to trusted colleges.  Do you have a plan for the mean time?”

Shinichi smirked, “I thought I’d take a page out of your book tou-san.”

Her father blinked, startled.

“What do you mean by that Shin-chan?” her mother looked adorably confused.

“I’m going to join the chase for Kaitou Kid.”

“What?!” her boyfriend yelled wide eyed, this was the first he was hearing of this.

She rolled her eyes as she turned to Kaito, “Relax, I’m not actually going to try to catch you. Not really anyway.  I just figured it’d be a good cover for me being at all your heists and I already have an excuse since I was at the last one.  I can say you caught my interest and I’ve decided to try and catch you or something.  In the mean time this will give me an excuse for being there and for scouting out the sites.  I’ll say I’m looking for your traps when I’m really looking for the syndicate snipers and such.  We’ll devise some way for me to warn you in advance if I notice something and I can also inform my father and whomever he brings into this.”

Kaito was just starting to relax at her explanation when she continued.

“Of course I can’t go too easy on you or people will notice so I will have to chase you. I just won’t arrest you if I catch you.”

Kaito was gaping at her and she’d never tell him that he resembled one of the fish he hated so much right now. “You’re really going to try and catch me?”

Shinichi blinked innocently at him, “Catch and release. Besides, it’ll be fun and you know it.  You’re the one who told me that the clock tower heist was the most excitement you’ve had in ages,” there was a bit of bite in those last words.  She didn’t agree with that sentiment since there’d been a gun involved that time.

Kaito’s face fell into a familiar smirk, “As if I’d let you catch me.”

“Who said anything about let?” she taunted.

Yukiko looked back and forth between the two and then leaned over and whispered loudly in her husband’s ear, “I wonder if this is their version of foreplay?”

Like magic both Shinichi’s and Kaito’s faces turned bright red as they turned to stare at her in disbelief. “Kaa-san!”

Looking at the two teenager’s blushing faces Yusaku couldn’t help but throw his head back and laugh and he was joined a moment later by his wife.

Life moved on after that.

Shinichi became a regular at the Kaitou Kid heists much to the displeasure of Inspector Nakamori. He kept muttering about teenage detectives sticking their noses into his case, though he had to admit that the girl got closer to Kid than anyone else.  She seemed to have an uncanny knack for being able to predict him even if it was never enough to catch the thief.

The other teenage detective he was muttering about was Hakuba Saguru, the half British son of Superintendent Hakuba. He was the same age as Shinichi and Kaito and a pretty good detective if she did say so, though not as good as herself. 

Before she’d came along Hakuba had come the closest to catching Kid, though after just a few meetings Shinichi knew that he probably never would. He was good no doubt but he thought in a very linear pattern and while there was nothing outright wrong with that, his opponent thought in twists and turns.  If Hakuba ever wanted to catch Kid he’d need to learn to think outside the box and she just didn’t think he could do that, especially when Kaito thought so far outside the box that she sometimes wondered if he could even find it.

Still, if things had been different she thought that she and Hakuba might have been friends.

 When they’d been introduced, other than a slight widening of the eyes, he’d shown no indication that he’d heard what she was other than a relatively famous detective.  She knew that he knew but he treated her as a normal girl and he had her thanks for that.  It also wasn’t often that she could talk her chosen trade with someone and not freak them out and/or have them understand every nuance of what she was describing.  He was also a Holmes fan just like she was and they’d gotten so busy chatting about Holmes at one heist that they’d nearly missed it, something that she felt supremely guilty for afterwards.

They’d lost that chance though when he’d met Kaito for the first time. Hakuba was sharp and he immediately recognized Kaito as Kaitou Kid, though he had no proof to back it up.  She’d been cursing Kaito out in her head the entire time for coming to pick her up after the heist.

Now Hakuba was suspicious of her boyfriend, though with no evidence to back it up as of yet. And since he knew just how good a detective she was he was now suspicious of her as well.  He was keeping a close eye on her now and those pleasant chats were a thing of the past.

To apologize Kaito took her to Tropical World and they spent the day riding all sorts of rides, till of course somebody had to die on the Mystery Coaster they were riding.

The headless body had squeed Kaito out big time, he’d turned green and had to look away or risk losing his lunch. Dead bodies were really not his thing.  Luckily she’d quickly solved the case so they could go. 

There was something about two of the passengers of the coaster though. She’d proved them innocent, of this crime at least, but looking at them sent a chill down her spine.  They were dressed so suspiciously, all in black, and looking into the blonde’s eyes she would bet her life that he’d killed before.

A little later she saw one of the two men again, acting very suspiciously, and she went to leave Kaito behind and follow him, after all maybe this man was connected to this syndicate of Kaito’s by some chance, but Kaito stopped her. He told her he had a really bad feeling about this and asked her to please not follow that man.

She was torn. Her detective instincts raged at her to get to the bottom of the man in black’s odd behavior but she knew that Kaito’s instincts were just as honed as hers and were never wrong.  If he had a bad feeling, she should probably listen.  Reluctantly she agreed and they left the park.

In the end not the best date but frankly, they’d had worse. Bodies just seemed to drop all around Shinichi.  At least this time the murderer had waited till their date was almost over.  Jeez.

All wasn’t lost on the friend front though.

Not long after their trip to Tropical World Shinichi had been over at Ran’s, visiting, when a strange dark skinned teenager with a thick kansai-ben accent burst through the door of the agency saying he was looking for Kudo.

At first she thought the strange boy might have a case for her but he quickly cleared that misconception up.

Turned out he was a detective to, one she’d actually heard of if only faintly. His name was Hattori Heiji, son of Police Chief Hattori Heizo, and he was from Osaka.  He told her he’d come all this way to challenge her deductive skills.  Since they were known as the Detectives of the East and West respectively, he wanted to know who the better of the two was.  He also rather bluntly stated that he was curious if she got all the publicity because she was a good detective or because she was transgender.

Ran had bristled at that comment but Shinichi…thought she rather liked his honesty. Even at the same time as she bristled at the insult to her skills as a detective.

They were still deciding how to settle their little debate when Ran’s father actually got a client. Shinichi was surprised, though she’d never admit as such to Ran.  Ran’s father was a terrible detective.  Or rather, he was a lazy drunkard of a detective.  She’d seen him make good logical deductions before so she knew he could do it, he just tended not to, explaining away evidence with the quickest and easiest explanation, something a detective should never do.

Shinichi and Hattori both horned their way into the investigation, a background check on a diplomat’s son’s fiancée. The case quickly turned foul when the diplomat, husband of their client, turned up dead in a locked room.

Kogoro, Ran’s father, was fairly useless during the investigation to her dismay, as Shinichi and Hattori combed over the scene.

Shinichi was just about to give her deduction when Hattori beat her to it. She listened in silence to his deductions and watched as he performed the killer’s trick to lock the room.  The only thing that surprised her was when the old man confessed after Hattori named him the culprit.  However she couldn’t let an innocent man go to prison, confession or not, so she stepped in. 

Calmly she poked holes in all of Hattori’s deductions. She watched as the slightly panicking young man realized that he’d fallen into the killer’s trap as he looked at the key holder he’d just pulled out of Megure’s pocket.  That trick that the killer had set up and he’d fallen into wouldn’t have worked to put the key back into the diplomat’s pocket in the position they’d found it in, he was just too heavy a man to pull it off. 

She pointed out the real killer and gave her own deductions. She revealed the family’s secrets and the motive for the murder, and then she pointed out the conclusive evidence.  Their client confessed to the murder and everyone was stunned to realize that she’d killed her sleeping husband with a poisoned needle right in front of them without them noticing.  But Shinichi was familiar with magic tricks and it was the same principal.  It was all about the misdirection.

When Hattori came up to her and admitted defeat and told her that she’d won this time she scathingly replied that there was no winning or losing in detective work because there was ever only one truth.

Hattori’s eyes had widened for a moment, stunned at her words, before fiddling with his ball cap and conceding the point. He admitted that he’d gotten a little carried away with their rivalry and lost sight of the goal.

Shinichi sighed and admitted that he’d had his own point earlier about the publicity. She’d like to believe that it was all because she was a great detective but she knew that a fair bit of the attention she got was because of her status as a transgender celebrity.  Though as she made her name as a detective she thought the publicity was more and more about the important things.  Still, she told him that she respected his honesty, since most people wouldn’t just come out and say such a thing.  They all dance around the topic.  His approach was…refreshing, if a tad crude.

With that she left him blinking as she went back to a Ran who was wondering why she was even there.

The next time she saw Hattori Heiji was another case, unfortunately.

It was supposed to be a romantic Holmes filled weekend trip for her and Kaito, but of course the whole trip went all wrong.

Kaito had filled out contest questionnaires for both of them to win them spots on a Holmes getaway where they, or rather Shinichi as the actual Holmes fan, had a chance to win a rare first edition Holmes book. She could and did kiss him for it when he told her about it, especially since she knew that listening to a bunch of people talk about Sherlock Holmes wasn’t really his thing.

While he enjoyed the kiss very much, all the thanks Kaito needed was the excited sparkle in Shinichi’s eye as she chattered away with the other participants about their favorite Holmes books. When people realized that Kaito wasn’t really a Holmes fan and he was just there for Shinichi they started getting lovebird jokes, much to their embarrassment.

When they got to the inn everybody was milling around, chatting about Holmes, when to Shinichi’s surprise Hattori came strolling up. She was even more surprised when he told her that he’d signed up for this tour on the off chance that she’d be here, apparently he wasn’t through with the whole ‘rivalry’ thing yet.  She wasn’t quite sure how she felt about it to be honest, it was bordering on stalkerish behavior but she let it go for now. 

Hattori earned himself evil eyes from the other contest participants when he told her that he preferred Ellery Queen over Conan Doyle. He had quickly corrected himself and said that Conan Doyle was probably still the best though and sighed when the stares eased up, much to Kaito’s amusement.

When Hattori realized she was there with her boyfriend on a semi-romantic weekend trip he was embarrassed to have interrupted it.

“Not at all,” Kaito protested. “It might be nice to have somebody to talk to who isn’t a Holmes freak this weekend.  I have a feeling that I’ll be Sherlock Holmes-d out by the end of the trip.”  He threw Hattori a conspiratorial grin.

Shinichi narrowed her eyes at her boyfriend, “I’d be very careful saying things like that around this group if I were you Kaito. Why, they might get the wrong impression.”

Kaito, suddenly realizing that he’d said the wrong thing, froze before putting his hand to the back of his head and laughing nervously. “I’ll try to remember that, gomen-ne my butterfly.”

Her stare lost some of it sharpness at that but Kaito still huffed a breath in relief when the contest director started to speak about the rules and something about a 1000 question test the participants had to pass to take part in the quiz the following night to win the first edition book.

Hattori had been watching all of this with curious eyes. Butterfly?

Shinichi had spent all night happily filling out that test much to Kaito’s amusement. He’d passed on it since he wasn’t really a fan.  Everything he knew about Holmes came from listening to Shinichi over the years.  He was more of a Maurice Leblanc and Arsène Lupin fan.

Come the next evening though when they were supposed to turn in their tests at dinner, the director didn’t show. They all waited in the dining room for him but it was getting late and the participants were getting restless.

Kaito, showman that he was, decided to give an impromptu magic show to entertain the masses until the director showed up. Pretty soon he was standing off to the side with all the participants gathered around, ooh-ing and ahh-ing at the pops and fizzles of light and sound coming off him, at the card tricks, never ending scarves, and appearing and disappearing doves in clouds of smoke.  All rather simple and still enjoyable tricks.  One couldn’t forget the roses for the ladies either of course. 

Shinichi rolled her eyes with a fond smile as she watched the show from her spot at a table off to the side.

“He’s pretty good isn’t he,” Hattori commented as he sat down next to her.

She blinked at him in surprise before relaxing again. “You should see him with his full arsenal.  His father was a world famous magician you see, and it’s his dream to follow in his footsteps.  He’s actually extremely talented, though of course still learning.” She smiled fondly at her boyfriend.

“I figured out why he calls ya butterfly,” Hattori said quietly.

Shinichi looked at him in surprise, “Then you would be the first one. Even our friends haven’t figured it out.”  She smirked, “It drives them nuts that I won’t tell them since it’s not something I’d usually allow someone to call me.”

“It’s rather obvious if ya really think about it, the whole transgender transformation and a butterfly’s transformation. Poetic really.”

She raised an eyebrow, “Guess you’re a detective after all.”

Hattori turned serious and slightly troubled eyes on Shinichi. “He knows, and it doesn’t bother him?”

She stiffened slightly. This was getting into rather personal territory, yet something told her that the answer really mattered to Hattori. 

“Of course he knows, and no, it doesn’t bother him.” She relaxed back into the table, putting an elbow on it and resting her cheek on her hand as she watched the other detective.  “I don’t think anybody in the Beika area at least doesn’t know about me thanks to those damn reporters but that’s not why Kaito knows.  Truth is, we’ve been best friends since we were five years old.”  She saw Hattori’s eyes widen in seeming wonder at her words and her own sharpened. 

“When I went through my transformation at fourteen, Kaito was the only friend who stood by me, in the beginning at least.  If I’m his butterfly then he’s my rock.  Hell, he even convinced his mother to let him transfer schools so he could protect me from the bullies.  It still took a bit of convincing on his part to make me believe that he could really see past…my physicality if you will, and accept his confession, no matter how much I wanted it.  Now,” she leveled a sharp look at Hattori, “are you going to tell me why I just told you all of this?  Something tells me it has nothing to do with our so-called rivalry.”

The boy looked away and scratched the back of his neck nervously. He opened his mouth as if to speak, then closed it, and then sighed and hung his head.  “There’s this girl, a friend of mine.  We’ve been friends since we were kids, like ya and Kuroba.  Anyway,” he looked up at her, “she’s like ya Kudo.”

Shinichi was struck speechless by this, having never met another transgender person to her knowledge before. “Eh?  Really?”

Hattori nodded. “Her name’s Toyama Kazuha but it used to be Kenji.  When she was thirteen she announced to her parents that she was a girl and wanted a sex change and all that jazz.  Shocked the hell out of all of us.  Kenji’d always been a bit….effeminate I guess, but I just thought he was gay if I thought about it at all.  Her father didn’t really take it well at first, even though her parents agreed to let her start the HRT, but he eventually did come around.  And so Kenji became Kazuha.”

“Huh.” Shinichi was intrigued by this glimpse at the life of another transgender girl, but still, what did this have to do with his earlier questions?  “And?  What did you do?”

He shot her an affronted look, “I stuck by her of course! Kenji was my best friend, just because he changed his name and became a girl doesn’t change that fact!  Sides,” he calmed down, “Kazuha needed me in the beginnin’ and I wasn’t gonna leave her hangin’.  She hates to admit it, but despite her temper she’s really rather tender hearted and the teasin’ and bullies were gettin’ to her.  Though why she didn’t just use her aikido on them I’ll never know,” he rolled his eyes.

Shinichi sweatdropped. “Aikido?  You call that effeminate?”

Hattori waved her off, “Yeah she’s a 2-dan, though she wasn’t quite as good back then of course. You’ll know what I mean if you ever meet her though.”

She leveled a considering gaze on the Osakan detective before her eyes widened in realization. “You love her don’t you?”

Hattori’s eyes went wide and he blushed bright red before just sort of slumping bonelessly in his chair and nodding slightly.

“And you’re confused about it,” she guessed. She knew she was right when he just continued to stare miserably at the table.  “And how does she feel about you?  Do you know?”

“How’m I supposed ta know?” he asked miserably. “Sometimes I think…but then…ah hell I don’t know!” he rubbed at his hair in frustration.  “I’m not good with stuff like this,” he turned pleading eyes on her, “it’s one of the reasons I sought ya out ya know.  I thought that maybe I could talk to ya about it and ya could help me figure things out.”

Shinichi blinked at him, “Well then why didn’t you last time?”

“Well I wanted to figure out what sorta person ya were first, gauge yer character so to speak. And I uh…” he scratched his cheek sheepishly and grinned, “sorta chickened out.”

She chuckled, really she thought that she could be friends with this goofy honest boy if circumstances allowed. “Well as much as I’d like to help you Hattori, I think you’re talking to the wrong person.”

He blinked at her, confused, “What do you mean Kudo?”

“Well for starters, despite being a girl, I’m as clueless when it comes to romance as it sounds like you are. I’m not going to be much help there, sorry.  As for the other, I get where you’re coming from, thinking I could help,” and now her eyes were serious, “but honestly, I doubt that I could.  I’m on the wrong side of the equation to be much help there, with too many insecurities of my own to even try.”

Now Hattori just looked dejected since his big plan had failed.

“However,” and she had his attention again and she smiled, “I would be happy to meet this friend of yours if you think she’d be interested. I’ve never met anybody like me before so I’d be very interested in meeting her.  Also, the person you should be talking to is Kaito.  He’s on the right side of that equation and fancies himself Mr. Romance as well.”

The Osakan turned a considering gaze on the magician.

“Want me to call him over here? It’s up to you.”

Hattori hesitated for a moment before nodding.

She stared fixedly at Kaito for a moment before he turned and looked her way and she tilted her head at Hattori. Kaito nodded and ended his impromptu magic show, extracting himself from the other participants to come sit with her and Hattori.

“You called Shin-chan?”

Hattori watched this with no small amount of amazement at how in tune the two were.

Shinichi briefly explained Hattori’s situation and request much to Kaito’s surprise as the boy in question stared red faced at the table. “Well, I’ll just leave you two alone to talk this out.”  She stood up, patted Hattori on the shoulder and smiled mischievously at Kaito as she walked off to join the other participants in a round of Holmes trivia as they continued to wait for the director.

Every once in awhile she glanced over to check on them but she couldn’t hear what they were talking about and frankly, she didn’t think it was any of her business. At first it looked like the conversation was a bit stilted for which she couldn’t blame them since it was a touchy topic and they were basically strangers, but when she looked over later they were deep in conversation and she smiled softly, glad that things seemed to be going well on that front at least.  It’d be nice if she and Kaito could help somebody else like her get a happily ever after, providing that the girl felt the same way as Hattori did at least.

Eventually Kaito and Hattori rejoined the group, neither saying anything about their conversation though Hattori was sitting quietly, a state that seemed unnatural for him, with a thoughtful look on his face.

As the hour got later and the director still didn’t show the other participants got bored and angry. By midnight most of them gave up and went to bed, deciding that the whole trip had all been a game and the first edition had never been up for grabs in the first place.

Only Shinichi, Kaito, Hattori, and two other participants continued to wait.

By a little after 3am even Shinichi was getting tired of waiting and tired in general. This was ridiculous.  Hattori was nearly nodding off on the table by this point.

She got up and stood in front on the full length windows, looking out at the darkness over the cliffs, when she felt a familiar presence behind her. Arms wrapped around her waist and a chin rested on her shoulder as she relaxed back into the body behind her.

“Did you have a good talk with Hattori earlier?” she murmured low.

Kaito chuckled in her ear. “You rather threw me into the deep end with that you know, some warning might have been nice.”

A smile stretched her lips, “Ah, but what fun would that be? What do you think about him?”

“I like him.  He’s not stuck up like that Hakuba fellow.”

Shinichi just rolled her eyes at that. Kaito and Hakuba had rather gotten off to a bad start with the whole Kid accusations and threatens of arrest.  Hakuba was rather stiff at first glance but he wasn’t a bad guy if you got to know him, unfortunately she didn’t think that Kaito would ever get that chance.

“You know, Aoko-chan probably knows him since he goes to Ekoda High.”

Kaito groaned, “Don’t remind me. She said she actually likes the guy, can you imagine?” he huffed, ruffling her hair with his breath.

She chuckled and was about to respond when movement outside caught her attention. She saw one of the director’s cars slowly driving towards the cliff, and if she wasn’t mistaken, that was the director inside!

“Hattori!” she yelled as she pulled from a stunned Kaito’s embrace, running outside. As soon as the other detective realized what was going on he followed her.

And it all went downhill from there.

By the time she and Hattori had cornered the criminal two people had died and one had been assaulted.

The director had been dead for hours when the car went over the cliff, a clever trick using the cars heater and rigor mortis being used to give the criminal an alibi. The man had next killed his own girlfriend when she figured him out, using the trick he’d set up for the third victim for her, effectively burning her alive in the garage.  Luckily both Shinichi and Hattori clued in on the attempt on the third victim and managed to save him and he came out of the assault with an ice pick to the arm but alive.

Shinichi and Hattori worked together seamlessly on the case and she was a bit surprised. It seems when he wasn’t focusing on their ‘rivalry’ he really was a good detective.

When they confronted the dead woman’s boyfriend, one of the two who had stayed all night in the dining room with her and the others for his alibi, she presented their conclusions and their evidence.

The man confessed, they almost always did when she cornered them. It turns out his motive was a book that the director and the third victim had written together named _Irene Adler’s Sneer_.  The man apparently worshipped Irene Adler and thought that she would never sneer at Holmes, as they had portrayed her, and hated them for it.  A pitiful motive, Shinichi thought.

When the man looked up at her afterwards and to everyone’s surprise declared that she was like a modern Irene come to life, Shinichi just blinked at him before laughing.

“I’m nothing like Irene. She might have been a great woman, it’s true.  However, she was a thief, and that’s one thing I’m not.  If you’re going to compare me to one of Conan Doyle’s characters, I’d rather, despite everything, be compared to Holmes himself.  The Heisei Holmes, now there’s a name.”  She smirked mischievously, “If anybody here is like Irene, it’s this one,” she jerked her thumb at a surprised Kaito who was standing next to her.

“Shin-chan!”

Shinichi fought to contain her laughter. “Well you are.  You’re a thief.  You pickpocket for your magic shows and you even crossdress for them sometimes.”

That drew them strange looks, even from the murderer sitting on the floor.

Kaito blushed now, “Shinichi!”

She laughed then took pity on her boyfriend and stopped teasing him.

Hattori sat with them on the train back later, after they were all released by the police.

“So much for ya’lls romantic weekend huh?” Hattori grinned mischievously at them.

Kaito just rolled his eyes, “Oh believe me Hattori-kun we’ve had worse.”

Hattori blinked in surprise, “Really?”

Shinichi blushed as Kaito nodded and thumbed at her, “Oh yes, I can’t take her anywhere. At least people weren’t attacking _us_ , is all I can say.”

“Mou, you know I can’t help it Kaito. It’s not like I ask the murderers to kill people on our dates.  What do you want me to do, ignore them?”

Kaito sighed as he looked at the slightly guilty look on her face. He knew that it bothered her to but she seemed to think that he was going to blame her for it, which was ridiculous.  He smiled softly, “I know you can’t Shin-chan and no I don’t want you to ignore them either.  You wouldn’t be you if you did my butterfly.”

Shinichi sighed in relief even as her face went red at the endearment and Kaito chuckled. “I’ll be right back.”

‘Eh? Where are you going?” Shinichi asked as Kaito stood to leave.

He waved her off, smiling sheepishly. “Toilet.”

“Oh.” She relaxed back into her seat as Kaito left.

Hattori looked at the girl sitting across from him staring out the train’s window. If the papers hadn’t reported her as being transgender he never would have guessed it.  She was beautiful, if a little tomboyish.  Sparkling sapphire eyes, a waterfall of dark chocolate hair that fell to her shoulder blades with a slightly goofy cowlick in the back, and an athletic but still very feminine figure.  With what he’d already seen of her personality he was sure that Kaito was a lucky man indeed though she was sure to keep him on his toes he thought with an internal laugh.

Suddenly those sapphire eyes were turned on him. “So, how did your conversation with Kaito go?  Did he help you figure anything out?”

Hattori blushed a bit at the reminder. “Yeah I think he really did.  Thanks Kudo, for the help.  I know I kinda stuck my nose into a personal matter.”

Shinichi smiled, “It’s alright. I’m glad we could help.  So, are you going to confess to her now?”

She watched with amusement as his eyes went wide and his face went beet red. Why did she get the feeling that even with his feelings for this Kazuha sorted out that he was going to be a bit of a lost cause in the romance department?

They continued to chat for the remainder of the train ride, Kaito joining in when he returned from the toilet. By the time they’d arrived back in Tokyo they’d received an invitation to visit Osaka from Hattori, he even told them to bring Ran along.

She had a light feeling in her heart as they parted ways.

While the trip might not have gone as they expected she thought that she might have made a new friend and that was worth more than she could say.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hahaha I bent Kazuha! Because I needed an excuse for Hattori to follow Shinichi around and because I could :)


	6. Chapter 6

Ran just listened in fond exasperation to the disaster that Shinichi’s romantic weekend with Kaito had become. She was rather used to it by now really.  She was surprised by the invitation Hattori had extended to them all to come visit him in Osaka though.  While he’d seemed like a nice enough guy Ran hadn’t been sure how to take his rather blunt attitude towards Shinichi’s transgender state.  Was it an insult or just bald-faced honesty and tactlessness? 

Once Shinichi filled her in on the happenings of the Holmes tour (or most of it anyway since Shinichi didn’t think Hattori would appreciate her blabbing how he felt about Kazuha to Ran) she thought she had a better picture of the young detective.

So Hattori had a friend like Shinichi hmm? Ran was intrigued, like Shinichi she had never met another transgender before.  She wondered if the girl could use a friend?  Even now Shinichi didn’t really have any friends besides her, Sonoko, and Kaito and she wondered if this Kazuha was the same.  Besides, the offer of a guided tour of Osaka sounded nice as well since she’d never been.  Ran gladly accepted Hattori’s offer, out of curiosity if nothing else.

It was several weeks before the group managed to get down to Osaka for the weekend where a rather gleeful Hattori Heiji met their train.

The Osakan detective was really rather proud of his Osakan heritage and babbled on and on, pointing out this and that till it was hard to keep up with him. He reminded Shinichi of Kaito on a sugar high at the moment to her amusement and slight horror.

They were at the Tsutenn Tower when she interrupted him to ask about Kazuha since the whole point of their visit was to meet her but he waved her off saying that they would meet up at his house later.

And then Hattori did something that challenged her respect of his senses.

He had one of his father’s officers come pick them up and drive them around in a patrol car of all things. He seemed rather excited, grinning away in the front seat.  They however were sitting in the back and feeling distinctly uncomfortable.  Ran looked like she wished she could melt into the seat and/or disappear, take your pick.  Kaito…well who could tell with Kaito.  There was some amusement at the situation yes, but mostly he looked like he wanted to climb out the window or something.  Too reminiscent of his near misses with the police she was guessing.  Even she wasn’t exactly comfortable sitting in back like a criminal, it felt like everybody they passed was staring, even if logically she knew they weren’t.

And then Hattori asked if they wanted him to turn on the siren and she damn near punched him.

Clueless idiot.

They drove around and tried several different restaurants each with specialized Osakan style dishes that were different from anything they’d ever tried before.

Shinichi had noticed that Ran had been jumpy ever since they left the Tsutenn Tower. She’d even said that she thought she felt someone watching them at one point but neither Shinichi nor Kaito had noticed anything.  Did that mean that whoever it was was only watching Ran?

It was at the hot cakes restaurant that things finally came to a head.

Hattori had left them for a moment after ordering to make a call to his mother when a girl walked up and sat down next to Ran despite her protests that the seat was taken.

She was a very ‘cute’ girl. The girl had skin like porcelain, big green eyes, and brown hair pulled up in a high ponytail with an orange ribbon, her bangs spiking around her face.  Shinichi also noted almost absentmindedly that the girl had a figure that she’d, well not kill for but you get the picture, and seemed very athletic.  She hoped the girl wasn’t going to be trouble.

So the first words out of the girl’s mouth were a bit of a surprise, especially since they were directed at Ran.

“So, you must be Kudo?” the girl said with a rather droll stare.

Ran just blinked in surprise, “Eh?”

“That Kudo girl that Heiji’s always talkin’ about, that he met in Tokyo. Don’t lie, I know it’s you.”  The girl leaned in to Ran’s face and glared.

What came next was a rather impassioned, if incorrect, speech about how this girl and Hattori had been friends since forever and had a bond of steel to prove it and if Ran was going to try to take advantage of him she was going to have to go through her first. As she said that last part she shook her fist at Ran as they all pretty much just sat there gaping.

Shinichi wondered if this girl could possibly be…? Her suspicions were proven right in the next moment by Hattori’s voice when he returned from his phone call.

“Kazuha? What are ya doin' here?”

When they explained what had happened Hattori about fell over laughing while Kazuha blushed and crossed her arms over her chest as she learned she’d been wrong.

“No, no, no. That’s Ran-chan, she’s Kudo’s best friend.”

Kazuha was obviously confused, “But I thought ya said Kudo was comin’ down to visit?”

Hattori grinned, “She did, that’s Kudo there,” he pointed at Shinichi and she gave a little wave, “and her boyfriend Kuroba Kaito is next to her.” Kaito smirked and gave a two finger salute.

Kazuha boggled, “Eh?!” She’d been so sure that Heiji was involved with this Kudo girl he’d been talking about, but he couldn’t be if she already had a boyfriend.  She had been wrong?

“What are ya doin' here Kazuha?” Hattori asked again.

She blushed as she mumbled something about protecting him from grasping Tokyo women and when he learned she’d been following them from the Tsutenn Tower they started bickering, completely ignoring the three staring at them.

Shinichi watched for a moment before grinning and catching Kaito’s eye. They were both thinking the same thing.  Kazuha had feelings for Hattori, plain as day.  Oh she might have tried to play it off as trying to protect him but those were the actions of a jealous woman, plain and simple.  So, there might be hope for the other couple yet.  Though she had the unsettling feeling that the bickering they were witnessing was normal for the two.

Ran was watching the two bicker with a soft smile. It had been easy for her as well to pick up on Kazuha’s feeling’s for Hattori, though she wasn’t sure how the detective felt for the girl, and watching them faintly reminded her of her and Shinichi years ago, before Shinichi’s transformation of course.  She decided to break up the bickering and ask something that pinged with her during Kazuha’s rant, “What did you mean by bonds of steel earlier?”

The two teens stopped bickering with a start and turned to Ran.

Hattori laughed and waved his hand in front of his face, “Oh that.” He told them a story about how apparently when he and Kazuha had been children they’d been playing police with some handcuffs of Hattori’s father’s that they’d found and accidentally got themselves stuck together for the day.  “Looking back on it it was kind of funny,” he claimed.

“What are ya callin' funny?” Kazuha asked crossly. “Back then we even had to bathe and go to the toilet together,” she stuck her nose in the air with a slight blush.

Ran’s eyes widened at hearing that while Shinichi just smirked and Kaito burst out laughing.

Hattori blushed, “Ahou! Don’t say stuff like that!”

Then Kazuha smiled and reached under her shirt and pulled out an omamori on a string and showed it to them. “I kept the link from the handcuffs, so we would remember it.  Like a memento.  Heiji has one to.  It keeps him safe on his cases.”

Hattori blushed even more when she revealed that, making Ran smile softly.

Shinichi leaned on the bar in front of them as she finally entered the conversation, interrupting yet more bickering, she could see that this was going to be a trend from those two. “At least the whole bathroom thing wouldn’t have quite so awkward back then since you were still Kenji, ne?” she said with a kind smile.

Her words made Kazuha stop mid word and turn to her, looking for all the world like somebody had punched her, and Shinichi frowned. Had Hattori not told Kazuha who she was beyond her last name?  Honestly!

“Wha-?” Kazuha turned to Hattori with a betrayed look, “Ya told them?  Heiji, how could ya? I-“

Shinichi decided to intervene and save Hattori since he was looking rather panicked. She stood up and walked over to the pair, catching Kazuha’s attention.  “I don’t think we’ve been properly introduced.  My name is Kudo Shinichi.  I’m a detective, just like Hattori.”  She calmly gazed at the other girl, waiting to see if she’d recognize her name.

Kazuha’s eyes widened. “Yer the Detective of the East that’s always in the papers.  Yer…,” she trailed off and then spoke softly, “yer like me.  I’ve always wanted to meet ya but I was too…  How…?”

Shinichi smiled softly, “Thank Hattori. We ran into each other on a couple cases and got to talking.”  She looked at Hattori briefly, unable to read the look in his eyes as he watched them though there was a certain softness as he looked at Kazuha.  “I think it’s fair to say that I call him friend now,” she saw the flash of surprise then gratitude in Hattori’s eyes at her words, “and he invited us all out to Osaka for a tour and to meet you.  Though apparently a few wires got crossed, “she smiled wryly.

The other girl turned to Hattori, “Why didn’t ya say anythin’ Heiji?”

The boy fiddled with his ever present ball cap, “I wanted to surprise ya and it wouldn’t be much of a surprise if I told ya now would it? Ya were supposed to meet them tonight at my place.”

Kazuha suddenly launched herself at Hattori and hugged his neck, “Thank ya, Heiji. Sorry I messed up yer surprise.”

The whole group grinned as the Osakan blushed and stuttered.

Kazuha ended up staying for hot cakes but split with them to make her own way back to Hattori’s house since she couldn’t fit in the patrol car with them.

All in all they ended up having a very pleasant trip to Osaka and Shinichi was surprised when not one body dropped. Maybe for once Kaito’s luck had canceled out her own?  Or maybe it just had something to do with Osaka in general, who knew.

Shinichi and Kazuha had ended up spending a lot of time together talking. It was nice getting a chance to talk to someone who really knew what she was going through and Kazuha felt the same.  They’d had a lot of the same experiences to though of course Kazuha didn’t have to deal with the press which Shinichi was faintly jealous of. 

She’d also seen what Hattori had meant back at the inn.

While she had seen several instances of Kazuha’s temper over the weekend, mostly aimed at Hattori though not all, she was in fact a very feminine ‘girly girl’. She always dressed cute, her hair was always just right though she didn’t bother with much makeup, she was very superstitious, and she bounced constantly.  Scare the girl and she’d grab the closest person to protect her.  Just don’t piss her off or you’d regret it.  Her temper was getting rather legendary among the group already.

She reminded Shinichi of a more extreme version of Ran, so it was no wonder that the two girls got along famously.

While Shinichi could see herself as friends with Kazuha she didn’t think that they’d ever be extremely close, she had more in common with Hattori really. Ran and Kazuha however she could see being best friends someday.  Nevertheless they’d all exchanged phone numbers by the end of the trip and promised to keep in touch.

It was refreshing to have had an uninterrupted trip for once, so why did something tell it was only the calm before the storm?

She was proven right just a couple weeks later on a nightmare of a heist that unintentionally revealed Kaito’s secrets to Hattori.

Shinichi was back in Osaka, this time for a Kid heist. She knew that this one didn’t have anything to do with Pandora since it was a newly discovered Faberge egg with only fake jewels on it but even she wasn’t privy to the truth behind this heist.  Kaito had just smirked and said he was pulling this one probono.

Sonoko’s family, the Suzuki Corporation, had discovered the egg, and the girl herself met Shinichi at the train station and they took a limo to the Suzuki Modern Arts Museum where the egg was being held as they chatted. When they got there Shinichi was surprised to see Hattori and Kazuha standing next to Hattori’s motorcycle.  She introduced Sonoko to the other two as she asked Hattori what he was doing here.  He told her that thought that this ‘heist’ sounded interesting and since it was on his home turf for once he thought he’d check it out.

Shinichi got a bit of a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach but there was really nothing she could do about it so she and Sonoko brought the Osakan duo along.

What followed was a rather exhausting round of introductions with foreigners, all there trying to grasp at the egg in one way or another. There ensued an argument over the fate of the egg before they were all escorted out, to Shinichi’s relief.  Then an assistant brought in the egg in question.  It didn’t really look like much on the outside but the little golden animatronic statue of the Tsar reading to his family inside was amazing.

The police had some ideas about when the heist would be but they weren’t positive of their decoding of Kid’s riddle. Shinichi hated to admit it that even she was a bit stumped on parts of it.  Kaito had out done himself this time.

The best guess at this point was 3am, so with that Shinichi, Hattori, and Kazuha left the museum to go see some of the sights while they waited.

It was almost too late when it happened. They’d dropped Kazuha off and were walking back up the museum’s walk when Hattori made an offhand comment about his watch and the time and the character ‘he’ referencing how the police had determined the time in Kid’s note and Shinichi just stopped in shock, mind racing.

They’d all been wrong she realized, the time wasn’t 3am but 7:20pm, using the character ‘he’, a code from the note. It was 7:13pm now!

She departed all of this information to Hattori as it started to lightly rain and the other detective had his own epiphany. They’d been wrong about Kid coming from Osaka Castle to.  The ‘Shining Sky’s chamber’ mentioned is actually Tsutenn Tower which has a weather station that lights up to show the forecast.

They were about to take off for the tower when they learned from an assistant of the Suzuki’s that the egg was no longer at the museum and had been moved to a secret location by the task force.

Both detectives realized Kid’s objective at the same time as the whole city went dark and Shinichi cursed at Kaito in her head. Dammit Kaito, she thought, don’t you think you’re taking it a little far this time?  He was undoubtedly standing on that damn tower watching the lights go on as generators went up and would shortly know exactly where the egg was being held while they had no clue since the police were sure to have a generator wherever they were holed up.

Hattori ran to his motorcycle and called to her, “C’mon, hop on.”

She jumped on behind him, slammed on the helmet he tossed her, and held on for dear life as he pealed out for the Tsutenn Tower. They would probably be too late but they couldn’t help but try.

It was actually easier then she thought it would be to keep track of Kid once they spotted him in the sky since his white outfit was nearly glowing in the darkness. When they reached an out of the way warehouse type building with lights on Shinichi jumped off the bike and yelled behind her for Hattori to stay with the bike as she headed inside and up the stairs.  She arrived just in time to see Kid standing in the window holding a box she presumed contained the egg amid several sleeping officers.  While she was loath to admit it, Kaito did cut a rather dashing figure in that ridiculous suit of his.

He smirked at her and set off a smoke bomb before jumping out the window and activating his hang glider again and swooping away.

She wasn’t about to let him get away that easily so she jumped out the window onto another surface before jumping to the ground and slamming the helmet Hattori tossed her back onto her head as she hopped back onto the motorcycle and yelled for Hattori to go.

It was what happened next that changed things for the three of them. Those nightmarish minutes where she thought her world had ended.

They were next to Osaka Bay when it happened. Kid was flying over the bay and Hattori was yelling back to her that they were going to lose him at this rate when she heard something, a small metallic clink that she shouldn’t have been able to hear over the roar of the motorcycle.

She glanced back and to her side and saw a dark figure silhouetted against the sky, wearing what looked like a trench coat, and holding a gun with what looked like a silencer attached up to the sky.

Shinichi’s heart clenched. No!

She whipped her head around and saw a white clad figure falling rapidly out of the sky. “No!” she couldn’t help but scream when she realized what was happening, making Hattori jerk in front of her.

They reached an observation point at the end of the road a few moments later and she nearly fell off the motorcycle in her hurry to get the objects she could see on the ground a few feet away, carelessly discarding the helmet as she went, not caring where it landed.

The box holding the Memories Egg lay shattered on the ground, shards of wood everywhere, yet somehow the egg remained intact, lying innocently upon its cushion among the fragments. She quickly dismissed it.

The other two items held much more interest to her.

One of Kaito’s doves lay fluttering weakly on the ground, obviously injured, though how it had obtained that injury she couldn’t say.

The other item threatened to shatter her heart.

It was Kaito’s beloved monocle. It had been his father’s, he would never just leave it behind.  Not to mention that it had been modified by the Professor to contain the tracking program to her earrings so he could always find her.  Now it lay shattered on the ground, the glass in pieces.

Shinichi just stared for a moment before reaching for her ear and the flesh colored earpiece she always wore during heists that connected her to Kaito, another invention of the Professor’s. Her hand trembled as she pushed on the earpiece to activate it, “Kaito?  Kaito!”  All she heard was static, his own earpiece wasn’t functioning.

Slowly she slid to the ground, having completely forgotten about her audience at this point, as the pain in her heart threatened to overwhelm her. The only conclusion she could draw was that Kaito had been shot down by the mysterious person she saw and had fallen into the ocean.  As she picked up the monocle and clutched it to her chest she even noted absently that there was a small amount of blood on it.

Shinichi slowly shook apart as tears streamed down her face and still she clutched the monocle.

This wasn’t supposed to have happened. This heist was supposed to be safe.

Hattori watched all of this with concern and confusion before suddenly everything clicked in his mind and his eyes went wide. “Kuroba is Kid,” he muttered out loud.  It made sense.  Kuroba was even a magician and it was the only reason he could think of that would have Shinichi, one of the strongest people he had ever met, completely break down over the apparent death of Kid.  Not to mention having her call out her boyfriend’s name instead of Kid’s.  Shit, he liked Kuroba, he hoped he wasn’t actually dead, for Shinichi’s sake if nothing else.

Hattori went over to the crying girl and crouched down, catching her attention, though the tears never stopped flowing. “Hey, chin up.  He might still be alive, we both know Kuroba’s a slippery fellow an’ hard to pin down, ne?”  He smiled softly.

Shinichi’s eyes widened. Dammit!  Her reaction, he’d figured it out!

She was wiping her eyes and trying to get a hold of herself when her phone rang and she froze for a moment before nearly pouncing on it.

“Moshi moshi?” A thread of hope wormed its way through her heart and into her voice at the unknown number.

“Shinichi.”

That’s all he said, just her name, but she knew and she nearly collapsed in immense relief. “Kaito,” she breathed.

Hattori’s face showed surprise then relief as well when he realized who had called her.

“You scared the hell out of me,” she tried to sound angry but only succeeded in sounding tired and shaken. “I thought you were…”

“Gomen-ne my butterfly. I didn’t mean for that to happen, I’m sorry you had to witness it.”

“Are you alright? There was blood on your monocle.”

“Ah, you found it? It saved my life I think.  There’s an assassin after treasures from the Romanov Dynasty who’s after the egg.  They always shoot their victims in the right eye but the monocle must have redirected the bullet.  I know I should have told you and I’m sorry but I promise I’m fine.  A few scratches from the glass and I’m drenched and freezing and smell like f-f-f, well you know, but fine.  Ah, and the earpiece shorted out from the water.”

Shinichi tucked her chin to her chest and fought not to crush her phone. She spoke slowly and clearly, “You are in so much trouble next time I see you Kuroba Kaito.”

“He, he, he, he. I ah, don’t suppose you’ve seen one of my doves anywhere have you?”

She looked over at the dove next to her, still fluttering weakly, and sighed. “It’s here with me but it’s hurt.  I don’t think it’s too bad though.  I can take care of it for you.”

“Arigatou Shin-chan.”

“Um, Kaito? We might have a slight problem,” a guilty look crossed her face as she glanced at Hattori who was watching her curiously.

“What’s wrong?” there was a certain sharpness to the voice now.

Shinichi ducked her head. “I wasn’t alone when you were shot down Kaito,” she whispered.  “Hattori was with me.  He figured it out, he figured _you_ out.  Gomen-ne Kaito.”

She heard a sigh over the phone, “It’s not your fault and it couldn’t be helped. I can think of worse people than Hattori to figure me out at least.”

“What do you want me to tell him?”

He hummed in her ear. “I think I’ll leave that up to you Shin-chan.  Tell him as much or as little as you want to depending on how he reacts I guess.  Now I need to get off of here before the police arrive.  Don’t want to get caught here.”

Her eyes widened, “You haven’t gotten to your safe house yet? Baka, what are you doing calling me then?”

His voice softened, “I knew you were following me butterfly and I knew that you’d be worried. I didn’t want to leave you waiting any longer than I had to.  I love you Shin-chan.”

“Oh,” she melted. He’d done something stupid to reassure her.  “I love you to Kaito.  Be safe.”

The phone clicked in her hand and she knew that he’d hung up. She dropped the phone in her lap and wiped her cheeks, a weight lifted off her chest now that she knew Kaito was alive and alright.

“So,” Hattori broke in, “does this mean that I’m gonna get the story? Cause I bet it’s an interestin’ one.  The detective and the thief,” he lifted an eyebrow.

Shinichi hesitated, “You’re not going to try and arrest him?”

He seemed to think about it for a moment before shrugging, “Not really that interested in thieves ta be honest with ya. Sides, yers seems ta be fairly harmless since he returns what he steals, or so I’ve heard.  I think I could look the other way on that fer a coupla friends, don’t ya?  Especially if the story is interestin’ enough, ne?”

She smiled gratefully, “Arigatou Hattori. But not here, okay?”

Hattori nodded in understanding.

It wasn’t very long after that that the police finally arrived. They gave their statements, both entirely truthful up to the point of their arrival at the observation point.  She knew it wasn’t very professional but she hid the monocle from the police and omitted it from her report.  Hattori didn’t say a word about it when he noticed.  It wasn’t like the police would have actually kept the monocle if she had turned it over to them, Kaito would have snuck it out of the evidence locker before coming home she had no doubt.  He’d never leave it behind, so she was just saving him a trip.

The egg was examined for evidence before being returned to the Suzuki’s. Amazingly it seemed to have come out of this without a single scratch.

They were allowed to take the dove with them seeing as there wasn’t really any evidence the police could get from it. So a short time later Hattori and Shinichi once again boarded the motorcycle, this time with Shinichi awkwardly clutching the dove to her chest with one hand, and they set out for Hattori’s house.

As she bandaged the dove she talked. She told Hattori Kaito’s story.  She had decided to trust the other detective so she told him everything as she worked.  She had long since finished the bandages though by the time she finished the story.

Hattori was outraged that there were people out there trying to kill one of his friends. He wanted to help bring the syndicate down but she turned him down.  She told him at this point, with her father’s contacts, they had people from several agencies around the world formed into a task force here in Japan aimed at bringing this syndicate down.  They were doing most of the work, even she only helped a little.  Her main job was keeping Kaito safe on heists, being a lookout, and reporting information back to the task force.  If Hattori wanted to help with that any time he was around for a heist he was welcome to it, but otherwise she’d rather he not get involved.

Hattori finally relented with a huff, not happy but resigned, though he did promise to keep their secret so that was a plus. She hadn’t lost her new friend in all of this at least.

She ended up staying with Hattori that night in one of the guest rooms they used before. She went to bed utterly drained and had nightmares of white clad figures being shot out of the sky.

Things weren’t over with the Memories Egg. In the end the assassin killed two people trying to get to the egg as it was transported back to Tokyo by ship and later in the famous Yokosuka Castle which was discovered to have been built by the same man who designed the egg and its twin.  Shinichi ended up cornering the assassin as the castle was in flames around her, Kaito at her back disguised as one of the Division 1 officers.  The woman, who they’d met that first day at the museum, was descended from Rasputin and had a hatred for all things Romanov, but really, that was another story.

All that mattered was that everybody was safe and sound and the killer was caught.

The eggs were returned to their rightful owner, the young woman who owned the castle. A young woman that, Shinichi learned, had a very interesting heritage even if she herself didn’t know that, but that too is another story and one best left unexplored.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes I’m sure you all recognized the Naniwa Serial Murder case just without the murders. I didn’t feel like adding the murders in or working through the logistics of the Conan to Shinichi changes. Plus I felt that Shinichi deserved a nice trip to Osaka considering her last trip and what was coming up :) Sorry if the canon change upset you guys.
> 
> And yes I know, the movies aren’t really canon. But I thought that that scene, with a little tweak, was just perfect to spill the beans to Hattori, ne?


	7. Chapter 7

Shinichi still had the occasional nightmare about that night even though things had settled down since then.

Kaito had gotten a cold from falling into the bay with its freezing February temperatures and Shinichi had told him it was divine punishment for not telling her the truth about the heist. He’d sulked after that but nothing really kept Kaito down for long.

Now it was Valentine’s Day.

Shinichi had been nervous at first, this was the first year that she’d given anything other than obligation chocolates after all, but everything went off without a hitch which she couldn’t be more thankful for.

She and Kaito were sitting on a bench in Beika Park since it was actually rather nice out despite the snow on the ground.

She hadn’t been able to bring herself to give him the chocolate she’d made with Ran’s help at school though she’d given all the obligation chocolates out like usual, so she invited him over after school.

Shinichi was a terrible cook and she knew it, which was why she’d had Ran help her, and really who could mess up chocolate? Still, she’d blushed as she handed the chocolate over to a beaming Kaito, nervous as he took the first bite.  He seemed to like it and sat there munching away so she finally relaxed with a sigh.  When he kissed her before getting up to go throw the wrapper away in a nearby trashcan she could taste chocolate on his lips.

On his way back Kaito encountered three of the local elementary school kids and ended up giving them an impromptu magic show. Shinichi just leaned against the back of the bench and watched with a wistful smile on her face.

When Kaito looked up from the two boys and the little girl he was entertaining a few minutes later to check on Shinichi he saw that wistful smile and knew that something was wrong. He quickly excused himself from the children despite their complaints and made his way back to his girlfriend as the children ran off.

He knelt down in the snow before the bench and reached up to run a finger down her slightly chilled cheek, “What’s wrong butterfly?”

Her eyes were troubled as she looked at him. “You like children Kaito,” Shinichi said with a low voice.

Kaito was confused, “Yes. I don’t understand Shinichi.”

She sighed as she thought of how to voice her concerns. This was something that had been tickling the back of her mind for awhile now but she hadn’t wanted to bring it to the light.  Besides, addressing such a concern seemed rather silly in such a new relationship but, watching Kaito with those children seemed to have brought that niggling concern to the surface and it was too late to back out now.

“You’d make a good father someday Kaito.” His face remained confused, he wasn’t getting it.  “I can’t give you that,” she whispered.

Comprehension flashed across his face before his eyes saddened. “Is that what you think?” he asked quietly.

“It’s what I know,” her eyes were filled with pain as they gazed into his. “This body of mine will never give birth.  Science can do many things, but it can’t do that, at least not yet.  I can’t give you children Kaito. _We_ will never have children.  I know that you want to be a father some day and I want to give you that so bad it hurts, but I can’t and it kills me a little inside every time I think of it.”

As Shinichi stared at her hands clenched in her lap Kaito realized just how much this had been bothering her. He shook his head.  Sometimes he just wanted to the shake the girl.  She bottled things up, took too much on herself, until everything exploded.  And she yelled at him for being reckless, he scoffed silently.  If she had but told him this had been bothering her he could have set her mind at ease months ago.

Kaito lifted her chin with a knuckle till she was meeting his gaze. “Did you really think that this hadn’t already occurred to me Shinichi?”

He saw her eyes widen slightly at that.

“You’re right, you’ll never give birth to our children, and I can’t change that. But that doesn’t mean we can’t have them just the same.  There’s adoption and surrogates.  Just because a child isn’t biologically both of ours doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be our child right?” he smiled softly.

Shinichi’s face relaxed and the shadows fled from her eyes, “No, you’re right. I just wasn’t sure…”

“What I’d say?”

She nodded.

“You’ve got to talk to me when things bother you Shinichi. How else am I supposed to help you?”

“I know, I’m sorry Kaito. It’s just…I felt a little ridiculous being worried about kids so soon after we started dating and when we’re still sixteen,” she blushed.

Kaito grinned, “Ah who cares what anybody else would think. Besides, I’m not ever letting you go so if you’re going to be stuck with me forever anyway we might as well talk about it now.”

Shinichi smiled as she fought another blush at his words. “Okay, so have you given it any thought then?”

Kaito stood and brushed snow off his pants before sitting next to Shinichi on the bench again. “Well either one works for me really.  I wouldn’t be against adoption but if you just have to have a kid that’s biologically one of ours then we could go the surrogate route I suppose.”   He glanced over at Shinichi and blushed, “I know you’re probably…well…because of the treatment.”

When Shinichi realized what Kaito was getting at she blushed as well. It was her own fault she supposed, she had started this conversation.

Kaito coughed, “Anyway, because of that when it comes to the surrogate we could always use me, if you wanted to go that route.”

Oh this was going to be awkward, she thought. “Actually, um…if we went that route we could use me to.”

Kaito blinked at her, “Eh? I thought…?”

Shinichi could just tell that her face was bright red at this point. “I probably am.  However my father had the foresight to think of all of this before I started the HRT and well…let’s just say he took me on an extremely embarrassing trip before I started the treatment.”  She prayed that she didn’t have to spell it out for Kaito, her face might combust if she did.

Kaito thought for a moment and then the proverbial light bulb went off, “Oh! So you…?”

She nodded. “I wasn’t really thinking about kids at fourteen but my father had a point when he said I might someday and it was the logical choice.  Better to have the option than to lose it forever and regret it later just because I was young and stupid.”

He hummed, “Young maybe but never stupid Shin-chan.” He grinned at her, “I think I’d like a little Shin-chan to play with.”

Her cheeks flushed a little and she stuck her nose in the air, “What if I want a miniature Kaito, did you think of that?”

“So? We can have both you know.” 

Shinichi blinked at him surprise.

“Just because both of us were only children doesn’t mean ours have to be. Frankly I think I’d prefer it this way, that way they’re never alone.  I think we both spent too much time alone growing up,” he offered a crooked smile.

“I…think I’d like that to,” she smiled tentatively at him.

“One of each then.” Kaito hummed thoughtfully then wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close, “Whelp, it’ll never be boring in our house, that’s for sure.”

Shinichi blinked up at him in astonishment before she thought back on some of the chaos she and Kaito had caused as children and started to chuckle.

Pretty soon they were both sitting there chuckling away and her heart was once again filled with happiness.

That Kaito, she thought fondly as she snuggled up to his side, he always knows just what to say to ease my mind.

Shinichi was almost dreading White Day by the time March 14th rolled around.  Somehow she just knew that Kaito was going to go overboard, it was his natural state of being after all.

She was right.

It started out small since they were at school, with a box of white chocolates wrapped in a big white bow with an origami butterfly stuck to the front that appeared on her desk as Kaito whistled merrily away behind her.

Then there was the new cell phone strap that just appeared on her phone during lunch. The strap itself was light purple but the little butterfly charm hanging on the end was white with big purple eyes.  Ran and Sonoko both thought it was adorable and Shinichi had to admit, if only to herself, that they were right.

When they got back to the classroom there was a small bag of chocolate cookies next to a magnificent bouquet of white roses sitting on her desk and she blushed as everybody stared at her even as she fingered a flower petal and Ran and Sonoko giggled.

When no more gifts showed up for the rest of the day she breathed a sigh of relief. She kissed Kaito’s cheek at the school gates as she said goodbye and headed home with Ran and Sonoko, arms full of roses.

They parted ways after awhile and she continued on her way alone.

Shinichi got the shock of her life when the door opened with a flourish as she walked up the steps and Kaito was standing there, bowing her into her own house.

He informed her that he wasn’t through giving her gifts yet, he just hadn’t wanted to give the last two at school.

That made her slightly apprehensive but she walked past him anyways, kicked off her shoes, and left to find a vase for the roses.

At least her parents weren’t home at the moment so she didn’t have to listen to her mother squeal she thought a few minutes later as they sat down in her beloved library.

Kaito pulled two smallish packages out of thin air in puffs of pink smoke and handed the smaller of the two, a roughly hand sized box, to her first.

Shinichi quickly tore off the white wrapping paper, curious, to reveal a black velvet jewelers box. She opened it and gasped.  It was a necklace and earring set, and it was gorgeous!  She ran a finger along the side of the necklace.  It was a white jade circle set in silver with bright sapphire blue cloisonné butterflies flying up the side.  The earrings were matching blue cloisonné butterflies about the size of one of her fingernails.

“Like it?” Kaito asked softly.

“It’s beautiful,” she whispered.

“Good.” He grinned, “And before you ask, yes the earrings have the trackers installed already courtesy of your Professor.”

Shinichi rolled her eyes but smiled softly. “And the other?”  The package was only a little thicker than her finger but about the size of a notebook.

Kaito held onto the package for a moment before reluctantly handing it over. “Wait to open that one till I’m gone,” he cautioned.

She blinked, “Why?”

He looked uncomfortable, “Just because.”

Her eyes narrowed, “What is it?”

Kaito blushed a little. “Let’s just say that I hope to see you in it someday,” he whispered in her ear before quickly standing up.  “Well I’ve got a train to catch, see you tomorrow Shin-chan.”

He was gone before she even had a chance to say goodbye.

Okay, now she was really curious. Shinichi looked down at the package in her lap.  Hoped to see her wear it eh?

She quickly became grateful that her mother wasn’t looking over her shoulder when she realized what was in the package. She blushed to the tips of her hair as she pulled out the silken négligée.  She had the insane urge to shove it back in the box before anybody could see it even though she was alone and nearly laughed at herself before taking a deep breath.

It was white, which was a given, and extremely sheer. Shinichi could tell that the silk wouldn’t really hide a thing when worn it was so thin.  It was edged in sapphire lace and had blue and violet butterflies flying up from the hem on one side.  The butterflies were so small that they wouldn’t hide anything though.  It dipped low in the front, yet with the lace, managed to actually cover everything if not hide it.  The straps were thin ribbons in a matching blue and when she turned the négligée around she saw that the back was cut out and held together with a criss-cross of the same ribbons.

Shinichi had to admit it was beautiful, though definitely not something that she’d be wearing anytime soon, that’s for sure. Someday though…someday she might wear it for Kaito like he’d asked, they’d just have to wait and see.

She immediately got the message Kaito was trying to send though, once she got over her embarrassment.

The négligée was beautiful and very feminine. Kaito was saying that that was how he viewed her.  The, ahem, sexual component was secondary, which was why he’d said someday and then left in such a hurry.  He’d been afraid that she’d misinterpret his meaning.  Not to mention he was still a teenage boy and it was a _very_ sexy négligée.

Shinichi smiled through her blush as she dropped the négligée back in the box. She’d have to find a way to thank him.  Even if she had no intention of wearing the négligée for Kaito in the near future just receiving it, and the message it represented, made her feel incredibly beautiful and feminine, something she treasured.  That boyfriend of hers had done it again, she shook her head fondly.

She sure hoped that Kaito didn’t go overboard like this every year, though somehow she thought that she’d already lost the battle on that one before it’d even begun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Google informed me that the meaning behind white chocolate on White Day was friends, however I think it’s still an appropriate White Day gift for Shinichi since they were best friends first and that hasn’t really changed even though they’re dating now. Sorry if you don’t agree with me.


	8. Chapter 8

Shinichi spent Kaito’s birthday in the hospital that year.

It was an incident that made her incredibly grateful for the earpieces at Kid heists and that made Hakuba even more suspicious but it couldn’t be helped.

Kaito had planned a heist the day before his birthday. He hadn’t had much choice, what with the full moon and the gem’s schedule.  They figured it wouldn’t matter much overall as long as everything went smoothly. 

Of course, since they said that, everything didn’t go smoothly.

Oh the heist went just as planned, hell the syndicate didn’t even show up. It was afterwards that everything went sideways, for Shinichi at least.

She’d left the heist early, just after Kid’s departure. It was late and she was tired, plus she and Kaito had plans for his birthday the next day and she didn’t want to end up sleeping the day away.  So she’d made her excuses, promised to write her report later, and set off for home.

Shinichi found out quickly that even though this heist had been held within walking distance she should have found a taxi.

She’d only traveled a few blocks when a group of men came out of the shadows and surrounded her. There were four of them, and she knew she was in trouble. 

All four men looked like bad news and she was proven right moments later.

Turns out that they’d recognized her from the papers and she cursed under her breath.

They started calling her names, names that got progressively worse as they pressed in on her, slowly herding her back into an alley. When one said that they were going to teach her a lesson she knew that this had gone far enough.

She slowly lifted a hand to her ear and just prayed that Kaito hadn’t gotten too far away because she knew that she couldn’t handle all four of them by herself. She pressed the earpiece and knew a moment’s relief when she could hear the wind whistling on Kaito’s side of the piece, he was still in the air.  She despised that her voice trembled a bit as she said his name.

Before he could respond the first man was on her and she had to focus. She managed to kick him away and dart the next one, watching in satisfaction for a moment as he fell to the ground unconscious.

The problem with the watch was that it was only big enough to hold one dart, and now that she’d used it she still had three more assailants to take care of and no idea when Kaito would get here. He would, she knew he would, thanks to her earrings and the tracking program in the monocle, but would he get there in time to save her?

She could faintly hear him yelling her name in her ear but she couldn’t spare the time to answer him.  

Shinichi managed to knock out another one with a conveniently placed brick and a well aimed kick but other than that the alley was distressingly clean for an alley with nothing else for her to kick.

Then the last two were on her and everything became a blur. She kicked and she punched, she clawed and she bit, until she hit her head on the building behind her and everything started to lose focus.

Suddenly the two men were gone and she was staring up into worried blue-violet eyes.

“Shinichi? Shinichi!”

“Kaito?” she asked groggily, taking in the monocle and top hat he still wore with eyes that didn’t want to focus. “Where did they-,”she cut off when she painfully turned her head and saw the two men pinned to the wall of the alley with playing cards, unconscious, no doubt from Kaito’s sleeping gas.

“Are you alright?” Kaito’s eyes worriedly swept her body, noting the various injuries and cursing himself for not being faster.  “What happened?  Who are these men?”

Shinichi grunted as she tried to lever herself up, “Everything hurts but I don’t think anything’s broken. It’s hard to focus though, maybe a concussion?  They jumped me when I passed the alley,” she hissed in a breath as she moved the wrong way.  “They recognized me from the papers,” her voice was low as she said that last sentence.

Kaito’s gaze hardened as he read between the lines of what Shinichi didn’t say. This was a hate crime, pure and simple.  A hate crime against his beautiful butterfly.  It made something dark and ugly rise up inside him and only the fact that Shinichi needed him allowed him to tamp it down.

He quickly secured the two assailants that Shinichi had managed to knockout, proud that she’d apparently put up one hell of a fight from the looks of it, before returning to where she was propped against the alley wall and gently scooped her up, his heart clenching at the pained noise she made.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m taking you back to the museum, the Task Force should still be there and Nakamori can call an ambulance for you.”

“But what about,” she protested weakly before he cut her off.

“Don’t worry about me. They’ll be so stunned that I bet they won’t even to try to arrest me till I’m already gone.  Worry about you Shin-chan.  I don’t like the looks of that head wound.”  He turned serious eyes to the wound on the back of her head that was still bleeding sluggishly.

Shinichi finally relaxed in his arms, he was right and she was in no condition to do anything about it anyway. She hurt and her brain felt like somebody had stuffed it with cotton.  It was easier to leave everything to him. 

Her eyes drifted closed.

Somewhere far off she figured they must have made for quite the sight as Kaito carried her down the moonlit street. The white clad thief and the blood covered detective.

She was barely conscious when they reached the museum a few minutes later, the gasps causing her to drag her eyes open even though her eyelids felt like they had weights on them.

Most of the usual heist crowd had dissipated now that the thief they had come to see had gone, and somewhere down deep Shinichi was grateful for it though right now it was just an abstract fact she noticed. Like Kaito had figured, the police were still present, still tying up loose ends on site.

It felt like a lifetime, but really it hadn’t even been an hour since the end of the heist she realized with a start.

When she managed to focus her fuzzy eyes she saw the shocked faces of Inspector Nakamori and Hakuba at the front of a small crowd of Task Force agents, just great. Nakamori turned and yelled for somebody to call for an ambulance as Kaito walked right up to him.

“What happened?” the gruff Inspector asked with serious eyes. Last he’d heard Kudo had been headed home and now she showed up in none other than Kaitou Kid’s arms, covered in blood.  One thing Nakamori knew though was that Kid would never hurt anybody, nobody gets hurt is his number one rule after all, so something must of happened to the girl on her way home is all he could figure.  Though why the thief was involved was anybody’s guess.

Kaito rather reluctantly and awkwardly transferred a barely conscious Shinichi to the Inspector’s arms then reached up and tilted the brim of his hat, “I came upon this damsel in distress on my way home and stopped to give her a hand. A few blocks back there are four men unconscious in an alley, two of them are her handiwork and two are mine.  I’m told that this was a hate crime, nothing more nothing less, though I’m sure Meitantei can tell you more when she wakes up.”

Several faces darkened when he told them that. By this point Shinichi was well liked among the Task Force and to think that somebody would hurt her for a reason such as this was nearly unthinkable to them.

Shinichi groggily turned her face towards Kaito and peered up at him, faintly aware that he was giving directions to the alley she’d been attacked in. Then Hakuba’s voice cut in as Kaito went to take his leave.

“Why did you help her Kid?”

Kaito’s face was unreadable as he gazed at Hakuba. “I’m a gentleman tantei-san, and what sort of gentleman doesn’t help a lady in distress.  Besides, I couldn’t not help my favorite detective out of a bind, things would be boring around here without her!”

Kaito tilted his ear in the air as he heard an approaching siren, “Now if you gentlemen would excuse me.”

Shinichi’s sight was fading, going black at the edges, as she watched Kaito tip his hat and disappear in a puff of pink smoke. Her last thought before unconsciousness finally claimed her was that she’d gotten blood on Kaito’s white suit.

When she woke up she was in the hospital and it was already morning. She felt like crap, but hey, she was alive so there was always that.

Kaito was asleep in the chair next to her bed and even in his sleep he was holding her hand. She smiled when she noticed, though the smile turned into a wince when it met her split lip.

She squeezed his hand and wanted to laugh, if she hadn’t suspected that it would hurt, when Kaito bolted upright in the chair and looked around wildly before finally settling on her and realizing she was awake. “Shinichi,” he yawned, “how long have you been awake?”

“I just woke up,” her voice croaked and he frowned before reaching for a cup of water with a straw on the bedside table and helping her take a drink, the water soothing her parched throat. “Thank you,” she said, her voice coming easier now.

He nodded before reaching up and stroking her unbruised cheek gently, “You gave me quite the scare last night.”

“I’m sorry.”

Kaito shook his head, “Don’t be, I’m just glad you’re alright. Let me go get the doctor.  I also need to call our friends and let them know you’ve woken up.  I’ll be right back butterfly.”  He gently kissed her forehead before leaving the room.

Shinichi blinked, call their friends? Just how many people knew she was in the hospital?

The doctor came in then and she was poked and prodded until he was satisfied. He then told her the good news, she was going to be okay!  Wasn’t that great?

In the end she was bruised from head to toe with a few random cuts and scrapes, severely bruised ribs that the doctors had taped up to be on the safe side, a split and puffy lip, a black eye that didn’t want to open all the way, and a lovely bump on the head that had given her a slight concussion that had been wrapped while she slept. She didn’t even _want_ to know what she looked like right now because she was sure it wasn’t anything close to beautiful.

The doctor told her they were going to keep her overnight to keep an eye on her concussion so she should get comfortable. He then told her to use the button to call the nurse if she needed anything and left the room.

Kaito came back a moment later and retook his seat. “So, what’s the prognosis?”

Like he didn’t already know, she thought grumpily. “I’ll live, but it’s going to hurt is what he basically said if you take out the doctor speak.”  Shinichi heard Kaito snort and turned her head to look at him, “How many people know that I’m in the hospital?”

She knew she wasn’t going to like the answer when his eyes drifted off to the side.

“Kaito,” she growled threateningly.

He sighed and winced, “Well…everybody. You see…you kind of made the papers…and the news.”

The gods-be-damned papers again, she cursed under her breath. “Perfect.”

“I called all the important people myself though. I figured this would happen and I didn’t want them to find out some other way.  Aoko sends get well wishes.  Hattori and Kazuha hopped a train this morning and will be here in a few hours, they insisted.  Ran and Sonoko will be here shortly now that you’ve woken up, Ran wanted to get her father sorted out this morning before heading over.  My mother also sends get well wishes and says to tell you she’s proud of the fight you put up though next time you should aim for their male bits,” he looked a bit pained as he repeated that, “and your parents will be over later.  They were here last night and didn’t leave until the doctor said you were going to be fine.”

Shinichi just blinked at the rather long and interesting list, especially the message from Kaito’s mother, and sighed. “And I’m sure that somewhere in all of this the police will be visiting as well.”

Kaito nodded though he knew it had been rhetorical.

She smiled ruefully, “Happy Birthday Kaito. Not quite what we had planned, ne?”

“Hey, I’m just glad you’re okay, that’s enough for me,” he lifted her hand with its bruised and swollen knuckles and kissed it gently.

She had many visitors throughout the day, and through it all Kaito never left her side. It hadn’t been long before Ran and Sonoko had shown up, fluttering over her in her hospital bed and keeping her company for a few hours, before they were replaced by Hattori and Kazuha when their train finally arrived.  When Shinichi protested that they hadn’t had to come all the way to Tokyo because of her, she’d gotten a rather scathing reply that she was their friend and they’d been worried so of course they were going to come.  She’d been rather touched.  It was also a good thing that there was no way that Kazuha could get into the local jail because she was spitting mad over the whole incident and threatening to use her aikido on those men to teach them to mess with Shinichi ever again.

The two Osakan’s were chased out when the police came to get her statement. They couldn’t stay too long anyway but told her that her parents had offered to put them up for the night and they’d be back in the morning before they caught the train back to Osaka.

Shinichi was glad to see faces she recognized among the police officers but still, she wasn’t looking forward to this.

Inspector Megure and Detectives Takagi and Sato all expressed their gratitude that she was awake and feeling better before starting to take her statement of the events of the night before.

Shinichi was immediately grateful that they’d allowed Kaito to remain with her as she was forced to relive the attack. She hated to repeat the hateful words that the men had thrown at her, but she knew the police needed to know everything that had happened, even that.

Her voice was measured and calm, face betraying nothing as she repeated the men’s words, only her white knuckled grip on Kaito’s hand betrayed how she really felt.

All the faces in the room darkened with every word she spoke but nobody dared interrupt her until finally her story was complete, though of course she’d fibbed a bit about Kaitou Kid’s involvement. Thankfully Kaito had had the foresight to remove her earpiece the night before so it wasn’t found among her affects, it would have been a bit hard to explain otherwise.

Kaito was shaking slightly in suppressed anger as Megure thanked her, Sato told her to rest up and get better, and the police left the room with a promise to keep the couple updated with any new developments.

Kaito was still seeing red. If he had known what those bastards had said to his girlfriend last night…well things might be different today.  “I can’t believe they…I should have…” his voice was low and filled with the rage he felt.  This was a side of Kaito that most didn’t ever get to see.

Shinichi turned sad eyes on her boyfriend then reached out and cupped his cheek, startling him into looking at her. “Hey none of that.  It’s over now and you saved me, that’s what matters.  I’ll be fine.  Let it go Kaito, they aren’t worth it.”  She saw the struggle in his eyes before he buried his face in her lap.  It was rather intimate but she just gently carded her fingers through his hair as they sat there and he finally let his anger go.

It was a knock on the door some while later that disturbed their peace. To her surprise it was Hakuba Saguru at the door.

When Kaito saw him his expression soured and he decided then and there that it was a good time to go get a vending machine hot chocolate though he made sure to stress that he’d be right back to Shinichi’s amusement.

Her amusement didn’t last very long unfortunately. Though Hakuba had come to check that she was doing alright, it wasn’t his primary motive.  He’d also apparently come to tell her that the incident last night had managed to strengthen his suspicions. 

Apparently when Kid left the heist last night he’d been heading in the complete opposite direction than she had been when she left. Therefore, it was rather curious that he’d ‘just happened’ to run across her in her hour of need as Hakuba put it.  Especially since he, though no one else, was convinced that they were dating and possibly even working together.  However, this time he’d give them a pass since apparently whatever method of communication they had could very well have saved her life.  He then bowed and left the room, passing Kaito in the hall.

Shinichi was cursing under her breath in her hospital bed.

The directionality of Kid’s escape was such a little thing, but it raised a big question. Why had Kid turn around if not because she’d called him somehow?

Dammit, nothing they could do about it now she supposed. And Hakuba still had no evidence to back up his theories, hell he wasn’t even so stupid as to go to Nakamori with them since the man’s daughter was good friends with Kaito.

All they could do was keep moving forward and be even more cautious than before.

Some birthday this had turned out to be for Kaito.

Maybe the next one would be better.

She could only hope.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn’t much like writing this chapter but I thought it should be done :(


	9. Chapter 9

In Shinichi’s opinion it took entirely too long for the bruises from that night to heal, for people to stop staring at her when she walked into the classroom or down the street, or for the damn reporters to leave her alone.

But as they always do, things once again went back to normal.

The bruises faded and then healed. Memories faded until people forgot about that incident whenever they saw her and went back to seeing her as ‘that high school detective’ or ‘that transgender detective’.  And best of all, eventually the reporters left her alone and went back to their usual antics.

Kaito had been a bit overprotective at first, but she set him straight so fast his ears had been ringing for a week.

And so things went back to normal.

Shinichi solved the various murders that seemed to drop in front of her on a regular basis. Kaito held his heists and performed more elaborate and death defying stunts with every one. 

And Shinichi chased him.

 She had to admit that working through the twists and turns of Kaito’s brain was quite the thrill.  And there were no bodies at his heists which was always a plus.

She also continued to act as Kaito’s lookout and secretly gathered information on the syndicate gunning for him, which she passed to the Task Force her father had put together.

Over the months they’d gathered quite a bit of data, especially with the revelation of a couple of undercover agents already in place inside the syndicate from the Japanese Secret Police and the FBI who had both been working on taking down the syndicate on their own for years now. And getting nowhere quick she might add.

In the end, with them all working together (which admittedly did take a bit of an adjustment period), it only took a little over a year to bring the syndicate to its knees.

It was just before Christmas when the Task Force made their move, and all over Japan cells fell and hundreds of arrests were made. Not even the leader managed to get away in the end.  The takedown was not bloodless unfortunately, lives on both sides were lost and the snow stained red with blood, but in the end every identified member was either killed in action or arrested.

Neither Shinichi nor Kaito were allowed to participate in the takedown, instead they were relegated to Task Force headquarters where they were allowed to help coordinate everything. Shinichi wasn’t a bit surprised when on one of the screens she saw two vaguely familiar men, the two men from the roller coaster murder at Tropical World all those months ago, being led out of a building in handcuffs.  The blonde was grinning maniacally.  That one was going to be trouble.

She’d never know what would have happened if she’d have followed them that night, and maybe it was better that way.

When they saw Snake, the self proclaimed killer of Kaito’s father and the person who came after Kaito the most, being led away in cuffs both Shinichi and Kaito let out sighs of relief before hugging each other.

There were bound to be some stragglers. They’d done the best that they could but it was a surety that at least a few people had probably gotten away, though they’d probably be more interested in hiding than getting revenge.  The agencies also had a ton of data to sift through from the various branches of the syndicate that they’d uncovered.  It would take months to comb through it all.  Things had stalled some until that could be done.

The takedown of a giant criminal syndicate was bound to be big news. Most of the facts were left out of the press, however they did admit that high school detective Kudo Shinichi had brought the case to their attention and assisted in the gathering of information.  They also admitted, to the public’s delight, that the famous thief Kaitou Kid had been instrumental to the investigation as well and that they’d been given permission to ‘look the other way’ in regards to the thief for the duration of the investigation in thanks for his help.

And so, like the Western custom of giving gifts on Christmas, with this both Shinichi and Kaito got their Christmas gifts early this year.

Kaito had finally avenged his father, his killers were behind bars, presumably to never see the light of day again.

As for Shinichi, she didn’t have to worry about crazy killers taking potshots at her boyfriend anymore.

Kaito was going to keep pulling heists as Kaitou Kid though. He hadn’t found Pandora yet.  They weren’t even sure if such a gem existed, but if it did it was too dangerous to leave out there.  Something like this could happen again. 

It was too soon to give up on finding it yet and Shinichi found that she was alright with him remaining Kaitou Kid, now that there weren’t killers after him at least. Maybe she’d even still try to catch him, it was fun after all.

And hey, she couldn’t have Kaito getting bored now could she?

Shinichi smiled, life could only get better from here.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember, Chapter 10 of this story is posted separately for those who don’t like the smexy scenes. It is not necessary to read it though if you would rather just continue on to the epilogue :)


	10. Bonus-Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A little peek into Kaito and Shinichi's future ;)

Shinichi sighed as they finally stepped off the plane. It had been a long trip from America back to Japan.

She looked down at the pink wrapped bundle of her daughter asleep in her arms and thought that it had been absolutely worth it.

Shinichi looked over at her husband and the sleeping bundle of their son, oh yes, it had definitely been worth it.

Shinichi and Kaito had been married for several years now. Kaito had proposed when they were twenty, right after he finally found Pandora and destroyed it forever, and they had been married just after they both turned twenty-one.

They had been happy, with Shinichi’s cases and Kaito’s magic shows keeping them busy, but something had been missing.

When they turned twenty-five they finally addressed that something and had a flash-back to that long ago conversation in a snowy park on Valentine’s Day. Children.

So they started making plans.

They both still wanted what they had back in that park on that day, a miniature of the other, so they decided, why not twins? More work for them in the long run maybe, and they might have a harder time finding a surrogate willing to carry twins, but they both liked the idea.

They knew that with the state of the surrogacy laws, or lack thereof, in Japan, they were better off going overseas to find a surrogate. And with the amount of time their parents spent in America it was the obvious choice, especially with its excellent surrogacy laws.

When they told their friends of their plans there were congratulations all around, and a rather surprising offer.

After everybody else had left Ran came up to the couple and offered to be their surrogate to their shock and amazement.

After talking it over, they all decided that it would be a little awkward if she was the biological mother of her friends’ children, and Ran knew that she’d have a hard time not getting too attached if that was the case, but if she were to just carry the babies… Well, she’d be the best auntie and godmother the kids would ever know and leave it at that.  She also didn’t have a problem with carrying twins for them though she’d been slightly surprised when they’d divulged that plan earlier.

Hugs, tears, and thanks abounded.

Shinichi and Kaito were both extremely grateful for their friend’s offer, they hadn’t expected it and would never have asked. Their plans had to be changed minutely to include Ran but that was alright.

It didn’t take long to get things tied up for the three and then they were off to America.

Ran’s father hadn’t been happy with what she was doing but her mother was proud of her daughter. Shinichi didn’t think that Ran’s parents would ever agree on anything and sometimes wondered why they even got married, or bothered to stay married since they’d been separated for years now.

They planned to stay in America for a full year. There was the duration of Ran’s pregnancy and then her recovery afterwards, plus they wanted the babies to grow a bit before taking them on an extended airplane trip around so many people.  That was assuming everything went according to plan of course.

Shinichi almost couldn’t believe this was really happening as they went through the process. It had all happened so fast. 

They talked to a fertility lawyer and had agreements drawn up for them and Ran, they found a respectable clinic to go through, and eventually they found the perfect egg donor. She was even part Japanese!

The cost was adding up at this point, though it wasn’t as much as it would have been since they weren’t paying Ran for her services, but they didn’t care. They could afford it and it was most definitely worth it if it worked.

Things seemed to happen fast after that.

Ran was inseminated with an embryo from each of them and now all they could do was wait. They had been warned that it often didn’t work on the first try and even if it did, both embryos might not take.

Luck was on their side though.

First they found out that it had indeed worked and Ran was pregnant. At her first ultrasound they discovered that she was successfully, at that point anyway, carrying twins.

Shinichi and Kaito were ecstatic.

Ran couldn’t count the number of times she nearly clocked one of them over the next months as they hovered protectively, especially Kaito. It did get a bit better once they passed the danger point for twins and it looked like she was going to successfully carry both babies to term.  She couldn’t really blame the couple, but really they were driving her nuts!

When they discovered that Ran was carrying one of each, a boy and a girl, Shinichi and Kaito both nearly cried. They’d wanted one of each for them and they’d gotten one of each, it was perfect.

When Ran went into labor several weeks early, Shinichi’s heart nearly stopped. No!  It was too soon!  Those were the only thoughts in her head as they rushed their friend to the hospital.

Ran ended up having a C-section, and a part of Shinichi felt guilt about the scar that her friend would carry from this, but the main part of her was focused on the health of her babies as she clutched at her husband fearfully.

Their son was fine, fat and healthy and bawling about being removed from his home of the last several months.

Their daughter though…she was so tiny and her cry was so weak. Shinichi’s heart clenched in fear as the doctors worked over her.

It was a profound relief when the doctor came over to tell them that their daughter was going to be fine. She was undersized, and a few other things that flew over their heads at the moment, but nothing too serious, though she would need to spend some time in an incubator unlike her brother.

The couple was led over to where the twins were, their son just finishing up with his nurse and getting swaddled and their daughter in an incubator with patches attached to her skin and gently waving a fist in the air.

Shinichi put a trembling hand through the hole on the side of the incubator and gently stroked a finger down her daughter’s tiny chest. When the newborn turned bleary eyes on her she thought her heart would melt.  She’d never thought that she could love somebody so much.

And then a nurse brought their son over and placed him in her arms and she melted all over again as he burbled up at her. Kaito leaned over her shoulder and cooed at the baby, letting the boy grab at his finger, and she smiled at her husband.

Things had almost gone so wrong, and there for a moment she’d been terrified, but it looked like everything had fallen neatly into place.

They were sitting next to Ran when she woke up later and both apologized but the woman waved them off, more concerned over the fate of her godchildren than any scars she’d carry from the experience. She sighed in relief when she heard that both babies were doing fine, even if one had to stay in the hospital for a little while.

As Ran recovered Shinichi and Kaito both quickly learned that two babies are quite a bit of work, more than they’d thought. Still they quickly developed a routine.

Both sets of grandparents had come to visit and had hung around cooing over their grandchildren for several weeks to the new parents’ dismay.

And finally it was time to return to Japan. The twins were nearly two months old by now and their daughter had grown so much Shinichi had trouble recognizing her as the tiny baby from that hospital room.

She stroked little Takara’s cheek, marveling at its softness. Takara, because she was her father’s treasure Kaito had insisted.

Over in his father’s arms Shinichi heard Kiseki grumble, prelude to a cry, and Kaito hurried to calm the boy down. She hadn’t been able to resist the name, he was her little miracle after all.

Ran had laughed and told them the names were a bit on the nose, but the couple had insisted.

They still didn’t know whose child was whose. The doctors had offered to do a DNA test to clear up the issue but the couple had just smiled as they turned them down.

It didn’t matter to them they had decided. It wasn’t important.  Maybe they’d figure out which twin was which as they grew up and maybe they wouldn’t.  Maybe it would be one of life’s little mysteries.  For once Shinichi was content to leave a mystery unsolved, and she was pretty sure the world wouldn’t stop spinning because of that.

As the little family left Security and headed towards the waiting areas where a welcoming party consisting of all their various friends and family waited to welcome them back to Japan and to meet the twins, Shinichi felt contentment settle in her heart.

When she was fourteen, and taking that fateful plunge, she never would have expected to have ended up here. Married and in love to her best friend, and with two beautiful children to show for it.

She’d never been happier, and it was all thanks to Kuroba Kaito, her rock, her knight in white armor.

She’ll always be his butterfly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did a fair bit of looking into surrogacy issues for this, hope I managed to get everything right. More importantly, it’s finished! *blows noisemaker*   
> Hope you all enjoyed it, constructive criticism is always welcome. Even if you didn’t, oh well. I enjoyed writing it and that’s all that really matters :)


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